DA 

09811! 



THE 



LORD MAYOR'S 
VISIT TO OXFORD, 



MONTH OF JULY, 1826. 



WRITTEN AT THE JDFSIRE OF THE PARTY, BY 



€f)t €§KpXxiii to tf)e JHagoraltj?, 



LONDON : 

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWNE, AND GREEN, 
PATERNOSTER ROW. 

M.DCCCXXV1. 



PIUN1ILD BY J. AND C. ADLARD, 
BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. 






TO THE 
RIGHT HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM VENABLES, 

THE WORSHIPFUL THE ALDERMEN, 

SIR CLAUDIUS STEPHEN HUNTER, BART. 

SAMUEL BIRCH, ESQ. 

JOHN ATKINS, ESQ. M. P. 

WILLIAM HEYGATE, ESQ. 

ROBERT WAITHMAN, ESQ. M.P. 

MATTHIAS PRIME LUCAS, ESQ. 

SIR PETER LAURIE, 

AND OTHERS OF THE PARTY; 

THIS NARRATIVE, 
Written at ti&eir oegire, 

Is respectfully inscribed, 

By their obliged and obedient Servant, 
THE CHAPLAIN TO THE MAYORALTY. 



Mansion House 
Oct. 31, 1826. 



PREFACE. 



It was not the original purpose of the writer of 
this narrative to prefix a Preface. It occurred 
to him, however, on more mature consideration, 
that as it is a species of writing not altogether in 
accordance with the sacred profession of which 
the writer is theunworthiest member,— although 
he trusts that not any thing will be found in 
this little work at all injurious to the interests 
of piety, — it might be well to say a word or two 
explanatory of its publication. 

It was undertaken expressly at the desire of 
the late Lord Mayor. And, as at the time to 
which the Narrative refers, the writer held the 
office of Chaplain to the Mayoralty, — he felt 



¥$ 



VI. PREFACE. 

the communication of a wish, to be a command, 
on the part of the distinguished individual, to 
whom he owed the honour of the appointment. 

He conceives, therefore, that the publication, 
though it seemed to require explanation, stands 
in no need of apology; whatever censures may 
fall on the performance. 



Dec. 9, 1826. 



THE 

&orfl Jttaaor^ Visit, 



Although the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor 
of London, as Conservator of the River Thames, 
has extended, time immemorial, from Yantlet, 
about fifty miles below London Bridge, on the 
east; to the London Mark Stone, about thirty- 
six miles, on the west : it has yet but rarely 
happened that the Court of Aldermen have 
thought proper, by any formality of proceeding, 
publicly to renew their claim to this jurisdiction 
over those districts of the river lying west of 
Richmond. 



2 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

In the course of every Mayoralty, indeed, 
"Courts of Conservancy of the River of Thames" 
are held by the Chief Magistrate, at Stratford 
and Greenwich, for the Counties of Essex and 
Kent ; and at Richmond, for those of Surrey 
and Middlesex : and these days are some of 
the pleasantest, as well as the most useful, in 
the course of the civic year. But the jurisdic- 
tion of the Lord Mayor over the river as far as 
the town of Staines, in the county of Middlesex, 
has, of late years, only been claimed, once in 
the mayoralty of Sir Watkin Lewes, in the year 
1781 ; afterwards, in the mayoralty of Sir 
Claudius Stephen Hunter, Baronet, in 1812 ; 
and lastly, in the Mayoralty of the Right 
Honourable William Venables, in 1826 : the 
occasion to which this brief narrative more par- 
ticularly refers. 

Early in the present year (1826), it was pro- 
posed to the Lord Mayor, by some of the 
aldermen, and others connected with the navi- 
gation of the river Thames, to consider the pro- 
priety of again asserting the civic prerogative 
over that part of the river, at the City Stone, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. O 

near Staines, in the course of the summer. It 
was also proposed to connect with the excursion 
a visit to Oxford. 

Conversation on the subject was resumed on 
Midsummer-day, in the chamber of the Guild- 
hall; whither the Lord Mayor, after having 
opened a Common Hall, had retired, with the 
aldermen, to allow the Livery of London, there 
assembled, the free and unbiassed exercise of 
one of their undoubted rights — the election of 
Sheriffs of London and Middlesex for the 
ensuing year : and the last week in July was 
ultimately and unanimously fixed upon for the 
excursion. 

Instructions were, accordingly, agreed to be 
given to the Town Clerk, to secure such accom- 
modation at an inn in Oxford, Reading, and 
Windsor, as might be adequate for the civic 
party ; and to make every other necessary 
arrangement. 

The plan originally designed by theLord Mayor 
was,to invite the Heads of Houses, and such other 
distinguished members of the University as might 
be in residence at the time, — for it was foreseen 

b2 



4 THE LORD MAYORS 

that this visit would fall in the Long Vacation, 
—together with the Mayor, and Magistrates of 
the City, to honour his Lordship and friends 
with their company at dinner, in Oxford, on 
Wednesday, the 26th of July ; to leave Oxford 
on the morning of the 27th ; and so to arrive in 
London on the Saturday evening following. 

If it were not notorious how soon the rumour 
of any measure is propagated, even before it is 
fully matured, it would be almost incredible that 
this excursion should have scarcely been deter- 
mined upon in London before it was known at 
Oxford : and a letter, written with all the kind- 
ness that the most polite hospitality could dic- 
tate, was, in a few days, received from the 
Mayor and Magistrates of Oxford. It was in 
the hand-writing of the Town-Clerk of Oxford ; 
was addressed to the Lord Mayor ; and read as 
follows : 

"Oxford, July 13, 1826. 
"My Lord, 
" The Mayor and Magistrates of this City, 
having learned that it is the intention of your 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 6 

Lordship to visit Oxford on the 26th instant, 

have desired me to request the honour of seeing 

your Lordship and suite at dinner, in their 

Council Chamber, on that day, at the hour of six. 

I have the honour to be, 

My Lord, 

Your Lordship's most Obedient Servant, 

THO. ROBERSON, 
Town Clerk. 

To the Right Honourable 
the Lord Mayor, fyc. fyc. <^c." 

This letter, at once so unexpected and so 
welcome, gave occasion to a very pleasing sort 
of embarrassment, on the part of the Lord Mayor 
and Aldermen of London. They felt it would 
be unkind, if not improper, to decline the invi- 
tation so handsomely given by the Mayor and 
Magistrates of that ancient and most loyal city ; 
and yet, as they had not intended to prolong 
their stay in Oxford beyond a single day, and 
had, moreover, fixed to entertain at dinner the 
chief members of the University and the City, 
they knew not how they could accept it. 



6 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

From this difficulty they were happily 
released by the question, "Could not your Lord- 
ship go a day sooner to Oxford V It was im- 
mediately seen that this slight alteration of the 
plan first intended would obviate every difficulty: 
it would allow them the opportunity of showing 
their respect to the Mayor and Magistrates of 
Oxford, by dining with them on the Tuesday ; 
and would also give them the honour of having 
the University and City to dinner on the Wed- 
nesday. 

The following letter was, accordingly, directed 
to be sent forthwith, addressed to the Worship- 
ful the Mayor of Oxford : 

"Guildhall, London; 
15 July, 1826. 
"Sir, 

" The Lord Mayor having communicated to 
me the invitation of yourself and Magistrates 
of the city of Oxford, through your Town Clerk, 
to his Lordship and suite, to dine in your 
Council Chamber on the 26th instant, on the 
occasion of his Lordship's visit to Oxford, I am 
desired by the Lord Mayor to express the high 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 7 

sense which his Lordship entertains of your kind 
attention and politeness, and regrets that, under 
the arrangements which have been made, and 
which it would be now difficult to alter, he 
cannot avail himself of it for that day. At the 
same time, his Lordship, feeling the evident in- 
tention of your object to avail yourself of his 
proposed visit to your city to pay a marked 
compliment to the city of London, in his person, 
has directed me to say, that if it would not in- 
terfere with the convenience of yourself and the 
Magistrates of the city of Oxford to make it 
Tuesday, the 25th instant, his Lordship would 
leave London sooner than he had intended, and 
would be most happy to attend them, in the 
hope that they would kindly accept his invita- 
tion to dine with him at the Star Inn, on the 
26th. 

I have the honour to be, 

&c. &c. &c. 
H. WOOBTHORPE, 
Town-Clerk of London. 
To the Worshipful 
the Mayor of Oxford, 



8 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

In this proposal, the Mayor and Magistrates 
of Oxford most readily expressed their acqui- 
escence, by a letter received from the Town- 
Clerk on the 18th, of which the following is a 
copy: 

"Oxford, July 17, 1826. 
"Sir, 

" I am directed by the Mayor and Magis- 
trates of this city to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 15th instant, and to request 
the favour of you to inform the Lord Mayor 
that they have great pleasure and satisfaction 
in being able to suit the convenience of his 
Lordship, by fixing their dinner for Tuesday, 
the 25th of this month. The Mayor and Ma- 
gistrates desire me to add, that they feel highly 
sensible of the compliment shown to the city of 
Oxford by his Lordship's acceptance of their 
own invitation ; and not less so by the invitation 
to his Lordship's dinner on the 26th, which 
they will do themselves the honor to accept. 
I am, Sir, 
Your most obedient humble Servant, 
THO. ROBERSON. 
Henry Woodthorpe, Esq." 









VISIT TO OXFORD. 9 

Every preliminary arrangement being com- 
pleted, and ample accommodation having been 
secured at the Star Inn, Oxford, for his Lord- 
ship and suite, to the number of about thirty 
persons, the civic party began to lay their plans 
for the journey. 

It had been previously understood that while 
his Lordship and friends should return together, 
in the city state barge, they should yet go to 
Oxford in such a way, and at such a time, as 
best comported with their own convenience. 
Mr. Alderman Atkins, accompanied by two of 
his daughters, Miss Atkins and Miss Sarah 
Jane, left his seat, Halstead Place, in Kent, on 
Monday, the 24th of July, and set out from 
London for Oxford in the cool of the following 
morning. On the same day, Mr. Alderman 
and Mrs. Lucas, with their daughters, Miss 
Charlotte and Miss Catharine, left their house, 
at Lea, in Kent, and went by land as far as 
Boulter's Lock, near Maidenhead, where they 
embarked on-board the Navigation shallop, and 
proceeded by water to Reading; thus selecting 
some of the finest views on the river. From 



10 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Reading their carriage brought them to Oxford 
before three o'clock on Tuesday. 

In the mean time, the city state barge, which 
had recently undergone complete repair, was 
making its way to Oxford, under the direction 
of Mr. Saunders, the water-bailiff; and ex- 
pended five days in its passage thither. 

The Lord Mayor had been careful to make 
every provision for his absence from London; 
and having found, in Alderman Sir James Shaw, 
Baronet, — who had kindly undertaken to pre- 
side at the Mansion-House while his Lordship 
was away, — a gentleman to whose mature judg- 
ment and discretion might be safely left the con 
sideration of even weightier matters than those to 
which the attention of the Chief Magistrate of 
London is every day called, — his Lordship felt 
that the period of this excursion would pass less 
anxiously away than if he had not been so for- 
tunate as to make an arrangement in every way 
so satisfactory. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 11 



TUESDAY, 



On the morning of the 25th, the Lord Mayor, 
accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, and 
attended by the Chaplain, left the Mansion- 
House soon after eight o'clock. 

The private state-carriage, drawn by four 
beautiful bays, had driven to the door at half- 
past seven. The coachman's countenance was 
reserved and thoughtful ; indicating full con- 
sciousness of the test by which his equestrian 
skill would this day be tried, in having the un- 
divided charge of four high-spirited and stately 
horses,— a circumstance somewhat unusual ; 
for, in the Lord Mayor's carriage, a postilion 
usually guides the first pair of horses. These 
fine animals were in admirable condition for the 
journey. Having been allowed a previous day of 
unbroken rest, they were quite impatient of 



12 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

delay; and chafed and champed exceedingly 
on the bits by which their impetuosity was 
restrained. 

The murmur of expectation, which had lasted 
for more than half an hour, amongst the crowd who 
had gathered around the carriage, was at length 
hushed by the opening of the hall-door. The 
Lord Mayor had been filling up this interval 
with instructions to the femme de menage, and 
other household officers, who were to be left in 
residence, to attend, with their wonted fidelity 
and diligence, to their respective departments 
of service during his absence, and now appeared 
at the door. His Lordship was accompanied by 
the Lady Mayoress, and followed by the Chaplain. 

As soon as the female attendant of the Lady 
Mayoress had taken her seat, dressed with be- 
coming neatness, at the side of the well-looking 
coachman, the carriage drove away ; not, how- 
ever, with that violent and extreme rapidity, 
which rather astounds than gratifies the 
beholders ; but at that steady and majestic pace, 
which is always an indication of real greatness. 

Passing along Cheapside and Fleet Street, — 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 13 

those arteries, as Dr. Johnson somewhere styles 
them, through which pours the full tide of 
London population, — and then along the Strand 
and Piccadilly, the carriage took the Henley 
road to Oxford. 

The weather was delightful : the sun, as 
though it had been refreshed by the copious and 
seasonable showers that had fallen very recent- 
ly, seemed to rise more bright and clear than 
usual, and streamed in full glory all around. 
The dust of almost a whole summer had been 
laid by the rain ; the roads were, of consequence, 
in excellent order; and the whole face of 
creation gleamed with joy. 

On approaching Hounslow, there was seen at 
some distance a huge volume of dark smoke, 
floating high in the clear blue atmosphere. It 
was thought, at first sight, to be a cloud of un- 
usual form ; and yet the unbroken clearness of 
the surrounding sky made it difficult to account 
for this solitary and singular appearance of a 
cloud. 

Conjecture was at length set at rest by the 
arrival of the carriage at Cranford Bridge, 



14 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

about three miles beyond Hounslow. This 
columnar smoke was then found, on inquiry, to 
have been the effect of an explosion, loud and 
tremendous, of a powder-mill on Hounslow 
Heath, about three quarters of a mile to the 
south of the road leading to Staines. Seven 
barrels of gunpowder are said to have been in 
the mill at the time. Of the two men who were 
at work when the accident happened, — and, 
happily, there were only two, — one, a widower, 
has left five children : the other has left a widow 
and three children. Their bodies were blown 
three hundred yards from the mill, and were 
dreadfully mutilated and scorched. An arm, 
belonging to one of the sufferers, was afterwards 
found in a field of oats, at a considerable dis- 
tance from the fatal spot. The noise is reported 
to have been appalling, and accompanied with 
a perceptible vibratory motion of the earth. 

As every proper precaution was known to be 
exercised by the proprietor of the mill, in having 
the machinery kept perfectly clean and free 
from grit, and always with the precaution of 
affixing pieces of brass to the soles of the shoes, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 15 

into which no iron nails were ever allowed to be 
driven ; and, as the only persons on the spot 
were the two sufferers, there is no way whatever 
of accounting for this dreadful accident. 

The reflections to which such terrible disas- 
ters give rise in the mind, are always of a deeply 
interesting nature. The thoughts are at once 
forced upon that scene of poignant misery 
which desolates the heart of the surviving 
families, by the sudden bereavement of those in 
whose affections they confided, and by whose 
industry they were supported. Such calami- 
tous occurrences, however, although they may 
for a moment or two intercept the current of 
that cheerful gaiety with which we always like 
to have our pleasure travels associated, will not 
yet be without a salutary moral use, if the 
sympathy which they awaken shall settle down 
into a permanent christian principle of action ; 
teaching us to have not only hearts to feel for, 
but hands to relieve, the distresses of our fellow- 
creatures. 

At Cranford-bridge, which is about thirteen 
miles from Hyde-Park Corner, the Lord Mayor 

I 



16 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

staid only long enough to change horses. For, 
his lordship intending to travel post from 
Cranford-bridge to Oxford, his own line horses 
were, after a proper interval of rest, to return 
to town under the coachman's care. 

These noble animals, however, seemed scarcely 
to need the rest which their master's kindness 
now allotted them. For, though they had drawn 
a somewhat heavy carriage a distance of nearly 
seventeen miles, they yet appeared as full of life 
as ever : arching their stately necks, and dash- 
ing in all directions the white foam from their 
mouths, as if they were displeased that they 
were to go no farther. 

Just as the carriage was about to drive away, 
Mr. Alderman Magnay, accompanied by his 
lady and daughter, arrived in a post-chaise. 
After an interchange of salutations, the Lady 
Mayoress, — observing that they must be some- 
what crowded in the chaise, — invited Miss 
Magnay to take the fourth seat, which had yet 
been vacant, in the carriage. As the day was 
beginning to be warm, this courteous offer of 
her ladyship was readily accepted. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 17 

The remainder of the journey was made with 
a degree of speed, which betokened a desire on 
the part of the postilions, that the Lord Mayor 
of London should have no cause to complain 
either of horses or drivers on the Henley road. 
Relays of horses having been previously secured 
at Maidenhead, Henley, and Benson, they 
paused only while they changed them; and, at 
a quarter after three, the Lord Mayor arrived 
in Oxford. 

There is always something peculiarly impo- 
sing in the entrance, particularly the Eastern 
entrance, to this magnificent city. The broad 
walk, bounded by lofty elms along the river, 
which attracts the eye, on the right, in passing 
over the bridge, and then the grey walls and 
lofty tower of MagdalenCollege, — viewed in con- 
nexion with the arched entrance to the Bota- 
nical Garden, and the beautiful walk belonging 
to Christ Church on the left, — form unitedly a 
scene of such unrivalled classic beauty, as 
rarely fails powerfully to impress the imagina- 
tion. You feel, — the moment you have crossed 
the stone bridge, and are passing by the row of 



18 

rugged elms that overshadow the pathway in 
front of Magdalen tower, — that you are now more 
exclusively within the solemn realm of literature ; 
where learning, which in other places is con- 
tented to lodge in cottages, or to be closetted in 
garrets, dwells here in palaces, and puts on 
all the pomp and circumstance of majesty. 
And if within the precincts of this most august 
of cities, it shall have been your privilege to 
receive your education, — an education, which, — 
if its advantages have been closely followed out, 
and you have been careful, by subsequent at- 
tention and diligence, to ripen into fruit those 
blossoms of instruction which were here first 
raised in your mind, — may perchance have fitted 
you to fill some commanding station in society, 
and have even given you a claim to eminence in 
the learned world ; — every renewed visit will but 
serve to waken up fresh feelings of filial grati- 
tude, and classic veneration. 

The carriage drove at once to the Star Inn ; 
where one of the Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and 
the Worshipful the Mayor, T. Ensworth, Esq., 
and other Magistrates of Oxford, together 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 19 

with the Town Clerk, G. R. Roberson, Esq., 
welcomed the Lord Mayor's arrival : to all of 
whom His Lordship was formally presented, and 
by all most respectfully received . 

As soon as the courtesies of the first reception 
were over, the Mayor and Magistrates with- 
drew ; congratulating themselves, they said, that 
only another hour lay between them and the 
honour of seeing at dinner, in their Council 
Chamber, the Chief Magistrate, and other 
Aldermen, of London. 

The Lord Mayor and his friends now retired 
to the apartments which had been previously 
engaged for them by Mr. Firth, first clerk of 
the Town Clerk ; to whose active and consi- 
derate attentions, the whole party had frequent 
reason to feel themselves particularly indebted. 

It must here be mentioned, that the Lady 
Mayoress, and other ladies of the party, to the 
number of eight, ordered dinner at the Star, 
and spent the evening in their own society. 

When the hour of six had arrived, the Lord 
Mayor, attended by Aldermen Atkins, Magnay, 

c 2 



20 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

and Lucas ; the Chamberlain of London, Richard 
Clark, Esq. ; the Town Clerk, H. Woodthorpe, 
Esq. ; the City Solicitor, W. L. Newman, 
Esq., and the Chaplain, with other officers of 
the City of London, together with Charles 
Venables, Esq., the Lord Mayor's brother, 
walked from the Star in companies of two 
and three. They passed Carfax, the city 
church, at which the Mayor and Corporation 
attend divine service in the morning and after- 
noon of every Sunday ; and, crossing the street, 
were soon at the Town Hall, a chaste and lofty 
building. 

At the bottom of the broad oaken stairs, 
which lead to the great hall, the Lord Mayor 
was met by two officers of his suite, the City 
Marshal, Mr. Cope, and the Mace Bearer, Mr. 
Beddome, who acted on this excursion in behalf 
of the Sword Bearer, Mr. Smith, whose indis- 
position prevented his attending. They were 
not in their dress of office, nor did they bear 
its insignia ; but preceded the Lord Mayor into 
the Hall, where the Mayor and other Magis- 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 21 

trates, together with the Members of Parliament 
for the city of Oxford were waiting, to welcome, 
with every demonstration of cordiality, His 
Lordship's whole party. 

At one end of this oblong hall, — which was 
used on this occasion as a withdrawing apart- 
ment, and is so spacious (its dimensions are 
one hundred and thirty-five feet, by thirty-one 
and a half,) as to admit of the session of 
two judicial courts at once, without either inter- 
fering with the other, — opened a small anti- 
chamber, the landing-place of which was occu- 
pied by the musicians, who had been summoned 
to increase the festivity of the evening. Through 
this room access was given to the Council 
Chamber, where preparations had been made 
for dinner on a scale of the most profuse mag- 
nificence. This commodious room was beau- 
tifully wainscotted with oak, the dark colour 
of which was relieved, when evening had fallen, 
by the number of lights in sconces which hung 
against the walls ; and by a large chandelier 
which over-hung the centre of the dining-table, 
burning with gas of peculiar brilliancy. 



22 



THE LORD MAYOR S 



In the centre of the upper part of the room 
was a full-length portrait of Queen Ann, by Sir 
Godfrey Kneller ; in the centre of the lower part 
of the room was a full-length portrait of the 
late Duke of Marlborough, by Gainsborough. 
The walls were also ornamented by large and 
gilt-framed portraits of M. Zach. Bogan, Earl 
of Abingdon— Sir Thomas White— Sir D. Webb 
— John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough 
— Sir William Walker — Dr. Wall — Thomas 
Romney, Esq. M-P. for the city of Oxford, in 
the reign of William the Third, and Ann. — 
Thomas Romney, junior, Esq., M. P. for the 
city, in the reign of George the First, and 
George the Second — Philip Herbert, Esq., M.P. 
for the city, in the reign of George the Second — 
Aldermen Harris, Hawkins, Nixon, and others. 
At the upper end of the room was a shelving 
table, on which were displayed several beautiful 
and richly wrought pieces of plate, — cups, 
tankards, and flaggons, — presented to the Mayor 
of Oxford at the coronation of Charles the Se- 
cond, and George the Third, and one that was 
presented at the coronation of his present most 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 23 

gracious majesty, George the Fourth, whom God 
preserve! — some one, some two, feet high, 
interspersed with leaves of laurel, and sur- 
mounted by a massive silver-gilt Mace, — that 
usual ensign of magisterial authority. 

The windows of the chamber, which extended 
the whole length on one side of the room, were 
crowded with pots of the most delicate and 
fragrant flowers. As soon as the Town-Clerk, 
who occupied the lower end of the table, oppo- 
site the Mayor, had said grace, the covers were 
lifted from the dishes ; and the company, to 
the number of about twenty-five, sat down at a 
quarter before seven o'clock, to a banquet of 
such a grand and costly nature, as seemed to 
indicate that the whole neighbouring country 
had been put in requisition. 

Just before the dinner was removed, the 
Mayor, rising from his seat, and requesting the 
Lord Mayor, who sat on his right, and Mr. 
Alderman Atkins, who sat on his left, to do the 
same, His Worship received at the hands of the 
butler, who stood near him, a cup and cover of 
solid gold, called the grace cup, of a singular 



24 



THE LORD MAYOR'S 



and antique appearance, presented to the city 
of Oxford, by Queen Elizabeth, always used 
upon seasons of high festival, filled with wine, 
and exclusively devoted to the toast of " Church 
and King." When the Mayor had tasted this 
cup, he handed it to the Lord Mayor ; who, at 
the same time, gave into the hand of Mr. Al- 
derman Atkins, the gold cover which His Lord- 
ship had, previously to the Mayor's drinking 
the toast, lifted off. Mr. Alderman Atkins then 
replaced the cover, which, when he had received 
the cup from the Lord Mayor, was taken off by 
the gentleman next in succession at the table : 
and in this way, three persons standing to do 
honour to this toast at the same time, — such is 
the custom, — the cup circulated round the 
company. 

Wines of the most expensive and rarest 
kind, and as cold as the most refined bon 
vivant could have wished them, with fruit, were 
then placed in profusion on the table; and, 
when the usual toasts of loyalty, — "the King,' 7 
— " the Duke of York and the Army,"—" the 
Duke of Clarence and the Navy," — " the Duke 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 25 

of Sussex, and the rest of the Royal Family/' 
had been given, and drunk with becoming en- 
thusiasm, — 

The Mayor of Oxford rose, and expressed 
the high gratification which he felt in having 
the honour to entertain the Chief Magistrate 
and members of the most ancient and powerful 
corporation in the kingdom ; and proposed the 
health of their distinguished visitor, " the Lord 
Mayor of London." 

The Lord Mayor, in returning thanks, said 
he felt it difficult to express the gratification 
which was felt by himself, and his fellow-members 
of the corporation of the city of London, for the 
honour now conferred upon them, in a city 
which brought so many pleasing associations to 
the mind. He hoped that the most friendly 
intercourse would always subsist between the 
two corporations, and concluded by proposing 
the health of " the Mayor of Oxford/' which was 
drunk in the warmest manner. 

The health of " the Members of Parliament 
for the City of Oxford" was then proposed. 



26 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Mr. Lock hart, in acknowledging the honour 
done them, said it gave him great pleasure to 
meet the Lord Mayor, and other magistrates of 
the city of London ; who, by their example, 
gave a tone to the whole city and empire. He 
was sure, from what he had seen and heard of 
the present Lord Mayor and Magistrates, that 
that tone and example would be of the best 
kind. He concluded by proposing the health 
of Mr. Alderman Atkins, with whom he had 
long acted in Parliament. He entertained the 
highest respect for the worthy Alderman, and 
rejoiced at the prospect of meeting him again 
in the House of Commons. 

Mr. Alderman Atkins, in returning thanks 
for the kind manner in which the toast to his 
health had been given and received, said, that 
although he had happened frequently to differ 
from his honourable friend on various political 
questions, he had yet always regarded him.with 
the truest respect and esteem. 

These toasts were succeeded by others to the 
health of the Aldermen and Sheriffs of London, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 27 

the Vice - Chancellor of the University, and 
the Magistrates of the city of Oxford. 

Mr. Lock hart again rose, and proposed the 
health of"thevenerableChamberlain of London," 
who was present, in excellent health, though he 
was in his eighty-seventh year. The honourable 
member spoke of him as a model of the elegant 
manners, literary taste, and kind dispositions 
of the generation that was past; and was happy 
to see, that he who had been the companion of 
so many men, whose names were enrolled in our 
history, was still in health, and had lost none of 
his vivacity. 

The Chamberlain returned thanks, and 
said, that though it would be admitted that he 
had arrived at that time of life when a writ of 
ease might be fairly claimed, yet he should be 
the most ungrateful man alive, were he to do so 
now, after his health had been so proposed and 
received. 

The Town Clerk of Oxford, in returning 
thanks for the honour which the company had 
done him in drinking his health, said, that if it 
ever fell to his province to write a history of the 



28 the lord -Mayor's 

city of Oxford, he should record the occurrence 
of this day as an epoch in its annals. 

The health of Mr. Alderman Lucas was 
then drank ; and in acknowledging the honour, 
he hoped that the city of London would always 
be ready to do suit and service, whenever it was 
required, in token of the sense which ought 
ever to be entertained of the sumptuous nature 
of this day's entertainment. For his part he 
would say, that he should be always ready to 
promote the harmony which now existed between 
the two corporations, and to return the hospi- 
tality and kindness with which they had been 
treated. 

Toasts to the health of the Town Clerk of 
London, the City Solicitor, and others, were 
subsequently proposed, and honoured with 
respectful attention. 

The conversation at this banquet, in the 
intervals of the several toasts, though naturally 
of a desultory and general nature, was yet such 
as to shew that, good taste, good feeling, and 
good sense, are by no means limited to the 
citizens of the metropolis. 

1 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 29 

The clock had nearly sounded within an hour 
of midnight, when the Lord Mayor rose from 
table, and was followed by the rest of the 
company. * Coffee was handed round in the 
withdrawing room. The party soon afterwards 
retired ; and the Lord Mayor, accompanied by 
his friends, returned to the inn, where they 
separated to their respective apartments of 
repose. 

There was something particularly gratifying 
in every part of the elegant entertainment with 
which the Lord Mayor and his friends had this 
day been honoured. It reminded one of what 
is told of the good olden times of England, to 
see the Chief Magistrate of Oxford receiving, 
in the Council Chamber of the classic city, the 
Chief Magistrate of London, not only in a style 
of such extreme generosity, as could scarcely 
have been exceeded if Majesty itself had been 
invited to the banquet ; but with all that easy 
politeness, which, in an instant, supersedes the 
preliminaries of previous acquaintance, and 
seems scarcely to require intercourse to 
strengthen, or time to improve it. 



30 



WEDNESDAY.' 



Some addition was next morning made to the 
number of the civic party, by the arrival of 
Mr. Alderman Heygate and his lady, who 
had travelled late the preceding evening, 
accompanied by Miss M c . Murdo, Mrs.Heygate's 
sister. 

As soon as the first greetings of the day had 
passed, an ample breakfast was provided in a 
large room, on the first floor, overlooking the 
street called the Com -Market. The table, 
which extended through the whole length of 
the room, was covered with as elegant linen as 
the wardrobe of the inn could furnish, and was 
loaded with a magnificent breakfast. The tea 
and coffee were accompanied not only with bread, 
warm and cold, in the shape of loaves, cakes, 
and biscuits, with other varieties, and butter ; 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 31 

but with every delicacy with which the morning 
meal, when sumptuously provided, is usually 
furnished. 

When breakfast was over, the Reverend Dr. 
George William Hall, Master of Pembroke 
College, and one of the Pro-Vice-Chancellors, 
offered, with much politeness, to conduct His 
Lordship and friends over such parts of the 
University and City, as they might wish to see. 
The kindness of this offer was at once most 
gratefully acknowledged ; and was accepted, 
as soon as those of the party, who had not 
awakened from their repose before the morning 
was somewhat advanced, and who were still 
lingering at the breakfast table, announced 
themselves in readiness to attend his lordship. 

At ten o'clock the whole party left the inn, 
some in carriages, and some on foot, and first 
proceeded to the Theatre — certainly one of the 
principal ornaments in Oxford ; for which it is 
indebted to that unequalled architect, Sir 
Christopher Wren. Being under repairs, it was 
seen to some disadvantage. Enough, however, 
was yet visible of this elegant edifice to raise 



32 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

admiration. The party were astonished to hear, 
that although its interior is only eighty feet by 
seventy, it is yet made, by consummate contri- 
vance and geometrical arrangement, to receive, 
with convenience, upwards of three thousand 
persons. In imitation of the ancient theatres, 
the walls of which were too widely expanded to 
admit of a roof, the ceiling has the appearance 
of canvass, painted allegorically, and strained 
over gilt cordage. 

After visiting the Clarendon Printing Office, 
and crossing the fine quadrangle of the Schools, 
the next object of attraction was the public 
library of the University ; commonly called the 
Bodleian, from the name of its first and principal 
founder, Sir Thomas Bodley, who lived in 
Elizabeth's distinguished reign — that favourite 
period of English literature and greatness ; when 
learning was prosecuted with an eagerness and 
perseverance, which, in the present age of 
indifference and dissipation, it is not easy to 
conceive. 

In this magnificent repository of knowledge, 
they were received by the Rev. Dr. Bliss, of 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 33 

St. John's College, the Registrar of the Univer- 
sity, to whom Mr. Alderman Atkins had letters 
of introduction, and to whose kindness the 
party were indebted for seeing many of the 
antiquities in the library : among these was a 
Latin exercise book — an autograph — of Queen 
Elizabeth ; — for it will be remembered, that in 
those days, it was the fashion among great 
ladies, quite as much as it is now, to study the 
ancient languages. On the outside of the 
cover of this book was the name of " Edward" 
written, the name of her royal brother, our 
sixth Edward, which, in the playfulness of early 
life, the princess Elizabeth had written here and 
there upon it. There was also a Missal of one 
of the Henrys, finely emblazoned, with some 
curiously valuable Greek Manuscripts ; as well 
as the rare collection of topographical and other 
works, lately bequeathed to the University, by 
that learned antiquary, Mr. Gough ; together 
with the oriental manuscripts, of which there 
is a rare and unique collection. 

After viewing the elegant models of Ancient 
Buildings, — among which were particularly 



34 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

admired the Theatre of Herculaneum, Le 
Maison Carree de Nismes, the friezes of which 
are most minutely and beautifully finished, an 
excellent cork model of the Amphitheatre of 
Verona, — and the Busts, Portraits, Landscapes, 
and Historical Paintings, in which the Picture 
Gallery is so rich, — the party proceeded to the 
College of Christ Church. 

The Hall is a magnificent room ; and, for the 
grandeur of its proportions, and the propriety 
of its ornaments, is said to be unrivalled as a 
refectory throughout the kingdom. The 
entrance to this hall, too, is curious : the roof, 
though extensive, is supported by one pillar 
only. As Christ Church has always claimed 
the honour of receiving our monarchs, when 
they came to Oxford, this hall has been the 
scene of those entertainments which were 
prepared to do honour to the royal visitors — 
Henry the Eighth, — Queen Elizabeth, in more 
than one instance ; — to James the First, and 
Charles the First : and subsequently, in our 
own times, in the year 1814, our present 
King dined here with Prince Metternich, the 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 35 

renowned veteran Blucher, and a numerous 
party of royal and noble visitors ; together with 
theDean,and all the other members of theCollege. 

In the Kitchen, to which some of the party 
were drawn by curiosity, nothing was observed 
particularly worthy of notice, except a large old 
curious gridiron, apparently about four feet 
square, supported by four wheels, used in 
former times for dressing whole joints before 
ranges and spits were invented. 

After seeing the Cathedral, Chapter House, 
Common Room, and the Library, which Dr. 
Johnson pronounced, from its great and 
commanding size, to be the place to prance in, 
while Trinity was the place for study, — the 
party were introduced to the Theatre of 
Anatomy, by Dr. Kidd, the Regius Professor of 
Medicine ; of whose polite attentions and 
interesting communications, on this occasion, 
too much cannot be said in acknowledgment. 

Among the principal preparations which the 
Professor's kindness exhibited, — and which are 
all so elegantly constructed, as in no degree to 
offend the delicacy of the most refined female 

d2 



36 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

mind, — was a portion of the alimentary canal 
of the turtle, shewing the arteries and veins 
artificially filled with wax, and the absorbent 
vessels with quicksilver. 

The exhibition of this fine preparation drew 
forth some very striking observations on the 
subject of what is significantly styled compa- 
rative anatomy, — that part of this wondrous 
science which compares the anatomy of several 
species of animals with that of man ; for the 
purpose of ascertaining the degree of similarity 
of their internal organization to that of the 
human body, disregarding the occasional 
dissimilarity of their external form. " It is on 
this principle," said the Professor, " that the 
most approved classification of animals is made, 
in the present day ; and on this principle it is 
that the bat and the whale are placed in the 
same class with the animals that most nearly 
resemble man ; though, from their external 
form, they are rather to be considered, the one 
a bird, and the other ajish." The Professor 
then took occasion to explain the process of 
digestion, which, so far as we are acquainted 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 37 

with it, he said, is the same with all animals in 
the same classification with man, and is soon 
described. The organs, in their simple state, 
consist merely of a membranous bag, called the 
stomach, which, by means of a fluid that exudes 
from its internal surface, has the power of 
reducing all the varieties of food on which 
animals live to a soft homogeneous pulp, from 
which the nutritive particles are absorbed into 
the system, and perfected into the state of the 
blood. He then observed how worthy it is of 
admiration, and how indicative of the uniformity 
and power of Nature, " by which term," he 
said, "I mean the Deity, or Controller of 
Nature :" — that the character of the blood, 
through a long series of animals of very different 
orders, and living on very different kinds of 
food, is the same. And when we come to 
examine the mode of its distribution through 
the body, and the uses to which it is applied, 
we have equal cause of wonder in the artificial 
manner in which it is conducted from part to 
part, and in the varying character of the 
compounds that are separated from it. The 



38 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

resemblance between the distribution of the 
blood-vessels, and the distribution by a skilful 
engineer of the pipes and conduits which are to 
convey water to the several parts of a large city, 
has been often remarked : " but," said the 
Professor, "in the distribution of the blood, there 
is this additional cause for admiration, — -that 
whereas, in the case of the artificial distribution 
of water, the same unaltered fluid is drawn off 
from each individual reservoir to which it has 
been conveyed, in the case of the blood it is far 
otherwise. Thus, what passes into the lachrymal 
gland as blood, passes out as tears ; from the 
glands of the mouth, as saliva ; from the liver, 
as bile ; and so on with respect to all the glands 
of the body. And throughout all the species 
of the more perfect animals, as quadrupeds, 
birds, reptiles, and fish, there does not appear," 
continued the professor, " to be one exception 
to this mode of distribution. So that, whether 
you examine the smallest of the fry of the 
smallest species of minnow, the aggregate 
quantity of whose blood would hardly be 
sufficient to leave a sensible moisture on the tip 

6 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 39 

of your finger, or whether you examine the 
largest of the whale tribe, the main vessel of 
whose body is a foot in diameter, and whose 
heart is said to throw out fifteen gallons of 
blood at a stroke, in either case the mode of 
distribution, and the apparatus by which it is 
effected, are essentially the same, as well as the 
final results : the minutest fish has its heart 
and arteries as artificially arranged, and the 
secretions from the blood as distinctly elaborated 
as those of the elephant or whale. And this," 
observed the Professor, " is another instance of 
the truth of that observation, that great and 
little are as nothing in the hands of God." 

The Professor then took up various prepara- 
tions illustrative of the history of the skin, shew- 
ing the unnumbered whitish fibres, of which it 
consists, intermixed with various branches of 
nerves, veins, and arteries ; the indented lines, or 
furrows, upon its surface ; with those pores, or 
holes of various sizes, not perceivable by the 
naked eye, which serve for the transpiration of 
various particles. Each of these pores, when 
examined through a good glass, looks like a 



40 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

fountain, the perspiration being seen to stand 
therein as clear as rock water. 

The next preparations were illustrative of the 
teeth, which only, of all the bones, grow in 
length during a man's whole life ; a circumstance 
providentially designed to repair the waste 
continually made by attrition. They are harder 
and firmer than any other bone, that they may 
be more durable, and fit to chew the most solid 
aliments. For their nourishment, there is a 
cavity contrived on each side of the jaw-bone, 
in which are lodged an artery, a vein, and a 
nerve, which, through smaller cavities, send 
their twigs to every tooth. The fore-teeth are 
formed broad, and with a thin and sharp edge, 
like chisels, to cut off a morsel from any solid 
food. The ones, on each side, beyond these, 
are stronger and deeper rooted, and some 
pointed, to bear tougher aliments. The rest 
are made flat and broad at top, and somewhat 
uneven, that they may thereby retain, grind, 
and mix the aliment. The fore- teeth, called the 
incisors, or cutters, as they have little to do, 
have only one root : the grinders, designed for 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 41 

harder work, have three. The situation of the 
teeth, moreover, is most convenient : — the 
grinders are behind, near the centre of motion, 
because chewing requires considerable force ; 
the cutters are placed in front, ready for their 
easier work. Fresh illustrations these of the 
wisdom and goodness of the Creator! 

A fine ivory and glass model of the eye was 
the next preparation to which the learned 
Professor drew attention ; shewing the utility 
of the eyelids, eyelashes, and eyebrows. The 
eyelash, — a palisade of short but stiff hairs, 
growing out of the cartilaginous edge of the 
eyelid, — serves to break the too fierce im- 
pression of the rays of light, and to prevent any 
thing from getting into the eye when open. In 
the mean time, the eyebrow hinders perspiration, 
or any thing else which might be hurtful, falling 
down from the forehead. And, in order that 
the eye may be able to move upward, downward, 
to either side, and round, either to the right or 
left, six muscles are allotted, which spread their 
tendons far into the eye. At each corner of 
the eye there is a gland, with two or three 



42 

ducts ; which, opening on the inner surface of 
the eye-lid, keep the eye-ball moist, to facilitate 
its motions. By these glands, tears are secerned. 
The form of the eye, as the Professor lifted the 
artificial preparation out of its socket, was 
shewn to be the most commodious that can be 
imagined. If it had been square, or of any 
other multangular form, some of its parts would 
lie too far off, and some too near, those lenticular 
humours, which, by their refraction, cause vision; 
but, by means of the round form, the humours 
are not only fitly placed to perform their office 
of refraction, and the little darkened cell neatly 
adapted to receive the image of the object; 
but, as the eye must necessarily move itself 
various ways, in order to adjust itself to various 
objects, so, by this form, it is well prepared for 
making such movements, Nor less worthy of 
admiration is the situation of the eye : as it is 
designed to watch the whole person, it occupies 
the highest place, — the place most convenient 
for defence and security. In the hand, indeed, 
it might have been more ready for service ; but 
to how many dangers would it have been exposed ! 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 43 

The Professor now opened another of the 
folding glass doors, which contained some 
preparations illustrative of diseases and injuries 
of the bones. 

Noon, however, had now passed ; although 
the edifying manner in which the time 
glided away made the party almost insen- 
sible of its progress. But, as there was 
much of the University which they had yet to 
see, and much which, it was lamented, must, 
after all, remain unseen ; they were under the 
necessity, with whatever reluctance, of leaving 
the Theatre of Anatomy : though not without 
making every possible acknowledgment of their 
obligations to the Professor, for his kindness of 
communication; and for those instructive 
remarks, of which the little that is remembered 
only serves to raise sincere regret that so much 
has been forgotten. 

For it is surely scarcely possible to 
examine even one of those exquisite prepa- 
rations which the Theatre of Anatomy 
exhibits, without renewed impressions of the 
Wisdom that constructed these bodies of ours, 



44 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

which are so fearfully and wonderfully made. 
Nor ought such an illustration of the Divine 
goodness and mercy to fail of awakening us to 
the duty of presenting our bodies and souls a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God ; for 

it is OUR REASONABLE SERVICE. 

Queen's College was next visited. The 
Library is a noble room ; but it was impossible 
to observe, without regret, that the fine old oak 
carving had been painted, without any 
pretensions whatever to taste or propriety. In 
this room is a large orrery, now out of repair. 
The windows of the Chapel, painted nearly 
three hundred years ago, still retain much of 
their original brilliance. 

Of All Soul's College, the magnificent 
Library, — nearly three hundred feet in length, 
was very much admired. It is said to contain 
forty thousand volumes,and is annually increased 
by funds, derived from an estate in the country, 
appropriated to that purpose. In the centre of 
this spacious room is a planetarium, kept in 
motion by machinery, and wound up once in 
eight days. The Chapel is deserving of all the 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 45 

admiration which it has ever excited. It is 
exceedingly beautiful : perhaps the most 
beautiful chapel in Oxford : — the light, shin- 
ing through the richly-painted windows, is 
peculiarly soft and impressive ; and imparts a 
solemnity to the chapel extremely fitting a place 
of Divine worship. Over the communion-table, 
and filling the centre of a small Grecian portico, 
of the Corinthian order, is a fine painting, by 
Raphael Mengs, — considered one of his finest, 
— representing our blessed Saviour's appearance 
to Mary Magdalen in the garden, at the precise 
moment when he says to her, Touch me not^for 
I am not yet ascended to my father, #c; his 
countenance beaming with sweet expression. 

In the Hall is a large picture, by Sir James 
Thornhill, representing the Finding of the Law, 
and King Josiah rending his robe. There is a 
curious sun-dial in the quadrangle of this 
College, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, 
which shews the time to a minute ; having two 
half-rays, and one whole ray for every hour, 
and the minutes marked on the sides of the 
rays, fifteen on each side. 



46 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

The Lord Mayor's visit to the Radcliffe 
Library was so brief, that Dr. Williams, the 
Regius Professor of Botany, and also Librarian 
of the Radcliffe, regretted he had not an 
opportunity of paying all the attention he was 
so anxious to offer. He particularly drew the 
notice of the party to the two beautiful Roman 
candlesticks, found at Tivoli, in the ruins of the 
Emperor Adrian's Palace ; the curious specimens 
of the Giants Causeway; and the several casts 
of ancient sculpture, which add so much to the 
interior decoration of the building. 

The fineness of the day, however, was such, 
that the Lord Mayor, with many others, 
particularly wished, after a somewhat hasty 
inspection of the busts and books which adorn 
the Library, to take the magnificent panoramic 
view which the summit of this fine structure 
commands. Accordingly, several of the party, 
preceded by his Lordship, ascended the stone 
staircase, which leads to an outer gallery, 
surrounding the base of the dome ; and were 
amply repaid the trouble of ascent by the extent 
and beauty of what they saw. In the mean 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 47 

time, the Lady Mayoress, and a few others of 
the ladies, not rinding themselves adequate to 
greater fatigue than that which they had already 
sustained, in ascending the lofty and handsome 
stone staircase, which conducts from the 
ground-floor to the Library, remained in the 
superb room which contains the books ; and were 
quite compensated the loss of the view without, 
by a more lengthened attention to the treasures 
within, this elegant building ; particularly some 
splendid works in Natural History, as they were 
exhibited and explained by the learned Librarian. 

The day was now fast wearing on, and the 
Lord Mayor proposed that they should return 
to the Inn, take some refreshment, and then 
resume their walk. Of his Lordship's proposal 
no one felt disposed to decline the acceptance ; 
for the refreshing fragrance of the air which 
breathed around the summit of the RadclifFe, 
had made the party by no means incapable, — 
spite of a most substantial breakfast, — of doing 
honour to a copious luncheon, which, at two 
o'clock, was presented at the Star. 

During this intermediate repast, the amuse- 



48 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

ment of the party was exceedingly promoted by 
the ludicrous entree of a lady of Oxford, who, 
though of great respectability, had yet over- 
stepped all the usual ceremonies of introduction, 
in her eager desire to be admitted to the presence 
of the Lady Mayoress. Her manners and 
appearance were ridiculous ; but one felt much 
regret on hearing that her talents, which were 
of the highest order, had been unhappily 
directed, and associated with too small a portion 
of common sense. 

After luncheon, several of the party, (some 
were too weary to resume their walk,) were 
conducted to St. John's College by the Rev. 
Mr. Woodgate, one of its fellows and tutors — 
a young clergyman standing in the first rank of 
the classical scholars of the University. In the 
library of this college, which consists of two 
handsome rooms, Mr. Woodgate pointed out 
several objects well worthy of inspection. 
Over the entrance to the first room was a bust 
of Charles I. and portraits of Sir William Paddy, 
Dr. Gibbons, and of Hudson, who gave his 
name to the settlement called Hudson's Bay, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 



49 



There are also portraits of Bishop Meaux, 
and Archbishop Laud. At the upper end of 
the inner library is a fine picture of John the 
Baptist, by Guercino. There are also some very 
curious paintings of our Saviour, the Virgin 
Mary, and the twelve Apostles, on copper, 
supposed to be by Carlo Dolci, — some beautiful 
miniature portraits of Charles I. and his Queen, 
— and a picture of Charles I., with the whole 
Book of Psalms written in the lines of the face, 
and the hairs of the head, too small to be read 
without the assistance of a good magnifying 
glass ! The party were also shewn an ancient 
crosier, of elegant form and workmanship, six 
feet one inch in height, en arabesques. It is 
made of a hard shining black wood, probably 
of ebony, beaded and infoliated with silver. 
There is also one of the earliest manuscript 
bibles after the reformation, extremely curious 
and interesting, — a copy of the Alcoran, — and 
a Chinese Dictionary ; not forgetting to 
mention the pastoral cap of Archbishop Laud, 
and his walking cane, a strong, though slender 
staff, with an ivory top of a circular form, the 

E 



50 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

same, it is said, which he used in walking to 
the scaffold. 

This visit to the library of St. John's was 
interesting, from the consideration, that perhaps 
few other places can exhibit so many memorials 
ofArchbishopLaud: — that extraordinary prelate, 
who, by his charitable temper towards the 
Roman Catholics of that period, and especially 
by his humane interposition in behalf of their 
imprisoned priests, — by his resolute adherence 
to pomps and ceremonies in religious worship, 
— by his public declaration, that, in the distri- 
bution of ecclesiastical preferments, he should, 
when their merits were equal, prefer the single 
to the married men, — but, above all, by 
permitting himself, without the least remon- 
strance, to be addressed by the title of " Your 
Holiness," and "Most Holy Father," confessedly 
gave too much reason for the calumny raised 
by the factious zealots of the day, that he was 
in collusion with the Papal court. Much, 
indeed, is it to be lamented, that his mind was 
not more occupied with essential points than 
with circumstantial forms ; and that, in the 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 51 

warmth of his attachment to the Church of 
England, he seemed so entirely to have lost 
sight of his discretion : for no man was ever a 
more firm believer in the doctrines of the 
Establishment, or more deeply sensible of its 
inestimable value to the British nation, than this 
ill-fated prelate. Of the men to whose violence 
he gave his life a sacrifice, it must be admitted, 
that, notwithstanding the odious and ridiculous 
qualities which lay on the surface of their cha- 
racters ; they were yet among the most extraor- 
dinary body of men the world ever produced. 

The party now left the library, and, crossing 
the centre of an arcade, at the east end of the 
second quadrangle, supported by eight pillars, 
over which are busts representing the Cardinal 
and Christian Virtues ; they passed through a 
gateway of the Doric order, supported by Ionic 
columns, opening on gardens ; which, if not of 
the largest dimensions, are yet so tastefully 
designed, so accurately kept, and so rich in 
exquisite flowers and evergreens, as to display 
all the beauty and diversity of which the place 
is capable. 

e2 



52 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

A broad gravel walk, bounded by high 
walls, apparently of the same antiquity with 
the college itself; overgrown with ivy, and 
other climbing plants, and surrounded by a 
most extensive grass-plot in the centre, gra- 
dually narrows into avenues on rising ground 
of beautiful inequality ; richly clothed with 
trees of such lofty and luxurious growth, that 
their branches completely over-arch the retired 
pathway beneath ; thus creating that 

" Obsolete prolixity of shade," 

for which the most interesting of poets so 
pathetically pleads. 

The sun was shining full upon the gardens at 
the hour of the Lord Mayor's visit to them ; but 
the many lofty trees keep these avenues in 
constant shade, excepting where the sun flings 
in a line of brilliancy between the boughs of the 
verdant arches. Such, indeed, is the solitude 
and repose of the whole scene, and so placid 
the idea of rest and seclusion which it excites, 
that the imagination would with difficulty 
conceive of any place more favourable to 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 53 

quiet study and profound meditation, than 
the sequestered gardens of St. John's in 
Oxford. 

A postern-door, in an outer wall, conducted 
the party into a lane leading to the fine and 
healthy walks, called the Parks. Passing, on 
the right, the extensive gardens of Trinity 
College, which are here terminated by a hand- 
some wrought-iron gate, through which may 
be seen some very ancient yew hedges, planted 
in the formal Dutch style ; and, on the left, 
Wadham College; the next objects of attraction 
were the Hall, Library, and Chapel, of New 
College ; all of which are upon a scale of con- 
siderable magnificence. 

Of New College Chapel every one has heard, 
and few probably have visited Oxford without 
having seen it. For, though it has long since 
been disrobed of that sumptuous furniture, and 
despoiled of those costly decorations,with which 
popish superstition is said to have enriched and 
adorned it in former times ; it yet retains much 
that is grand and beautiful, and deservedly takes 
a high, — we had almost said the first, — place 



54 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

among the sanctuaries of Oxford . The delicacy 
and richness of the five compartments of marble 
sculpture over the communion-table, elegantly 
executed in alto-relievo, representing the salu- 
tation of the Virgin Mary, the Nativity of 
Christ, the Descent from the Cross, the Resur- 
rection, and the Ascension : — the altar-table, 
composed of dove-coloured marble, — the eastern 
wall wrought into universal ornament, enriched 
with pinnacles encrusted with tracery of florid 
gothic, and scooped, as though the stone had 
been robbed of its weight and density, into 
the most beautiful niches, to the number of 
fifty, in four separate ranges, rising one above 
another; — the organ-loft, so raised over the 
entrance, and the organ itself so divided in its 
centre by a gothic arch, as to admit of seeing 
from the altar the great west window, containing 
seven allegorical figures, representing the four 
cardinal virtues, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, 
and Prudence ; and the three Christian virtues, 
Faith, Hope, and Charity ; and, above these, in 
a space of great width and height, a representa- 
tion of the Nativity of Christ; — the painted 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 55 

windows of the Ante-Chapel, containing por- 
traits of patriarchs, prophets, saints, and martyrs, 
; — the windows on the north side containing the 
chief persons recorded in the Old Testament, 
from Adam to Moses, with twelve of the 
prophets, — other windows displaying figures of 
the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and the Twelve 
Apostles ; with every part, indeed, of this 
solemn building, wherein painting, music, and 
architecture are in such admirable unison, the 
Lord Mayor and his friends were beyond all 
expression gratified. 

In the north-east corner of the chapel, en- 
closed within a narrow folding door, and fast- 
ened by staples to the wall, for the sake of 
security, is a crosier, or pastoral staff, of William 
of Wykeham, the founder of the College, and 
certainly one of the most illustrious men of his 
age and country ; — gifted with great abilities, 
unblemished integrity, and princely munificence. 
His crosier is nearly seven feet high, of silver 
gilt, emblazoned with gothic ornaments, and of 
the most beautiful workmanship. 

While the party were sitting down around the 



56 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

steps of the altar, admiring the varied and 
wondrous beauties of this solemn little place, 
and musing over the picture of other times 
which the majestic sacredness of this magnifi- 
cent building presented to their imagination, 
they were unexpectedly gratified by the sound 
of the organ ; whose grand intonations soaring 
aloft, and warbling along the roof, were made 
to swell gradually through the venerable chapel, 
diffusing, as it were, a tranquillizing sabbath 
over the place. 

For this musical treat the party were indebted 
to the Rev. Mr. Woodgate, who hoped, by 
playing first himself, to induce the ladies to 
assume firmness sufficient to contribute their 
contingent to the gratification of the party. 

After sitting, for some time, lost in that kind 
of reverie which strains of music are sometimes 
apt to inspire, it was found that the far advance 
of the day admitted of visiting only one more 
of these beautiful buildings, — and this, it was 
agreed, should be Magdalene College, 

Underneath the altar-piece in Magdalene 
Chapel, is a very fine picture of Christ bearing 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 57 

his Cross, supposed to have been the work of 
Moralez, styled El Divino, a Spanish artist of 
the sixteenth century. The painted windows, 
enriched with representations of Christ's bap- 
tism, the Adoration at the Sepulchre, figures of 
the Apostles, Primitive Fathers, Saints, and 
Martyrs, were much admired. Over the 
western entrance are five small figures, repre- 
senting John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, 
Henry III,, William of Wykeham, and William 
Waynfleete the founder, — considered to be as 
fine specimens of ancient sculpture, as the party 
had seen in Oxford. The columns supporting 
the roof of the Ante-Chapel deserve particular 
notice. In the hall, which is of spacious pro- 
portions, the wainscot of painted oak is deco- 
rated with several grotesque figures, carved in 
wood. In the centre are nine compartments, 
six of which are scripture pieces. Among 
several whole length portraits, the attention was 
drawn particularly to that of Addison, who was 
a demy of this college. 

The Buttery was next visited, in which some 
of the party tasted the classic water. In the 



58 



THE LORD MAYOR S 



gardens, which encircle a prettily situated 
paddock for deer, is a beautiful walk, bordered 
by lofty elms, near which winds the river 
Cherwell, and which is called Addison's Walk, 
from being his favourite resort when an Oxford 
student. 

The interior of the great quadrangle is re- 
markable for the emblematical representations 
which decorate it. These singular devices have 
long exercised the ingenuity of the curious 
antiquary. After again admiring the lofty 
Magdalene tower, whose stately form and fine 
proportions delight the eye, from whatever point 
of view it be seen ; the party returned to the 
Star, to make those alterations in their dress, 
for which the near approach of the dinner-hour 
had not allowed more than sufficient time. 

The hour of six had scarcely arrived, when 
the company, invited by the Lord Mayor to 
dine with him at the Star, began to assemble. 
The city watermen, in their new scarlet state 
liveries, were stationed in the entrance hall ; and 
a band of music was in attendance, to play on 
the arrival of the visitors. In a large drawing 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 59 

room, on the first floor, fronting the street, on a 
sofa at the upper end, sat the Lady Mayoress, 
accompanied by Mrs. Charles Venables ; and 
surrounded by the other ladies of the party. The 
City Marshal of London, Mr. Cope, dressed in 
full uniform, and carrying his staff of office in his 
hand, took his station at the door,and announced 
the names of the guests as they severally arrived. 
Near the entrance of the room also stood Mr. 
Beddome, in a richly wrought black silk gown, 
carrying the sword downwards. The Lord 
Mayor, who was in full dress, and attended 
by his chaplain in clerical robes, wore on this 
occasion the brilliant collar of S. S. ; — an honour 
belonging to the Lord High Chancellor, — the 
Lord Chief Justice of England, — and to the Chief 
Magistrate of London. The worshipful the 
Mayor, and the other Magistrates of Oxford ; 
Richard Cox, Esq., Thomas Fox Bricknell, Esq., 
Aldermen; — William Folker, Esq., Sir Joseph 
Lock, Richard Wootten, Esq., Thomas 
Robinson, Esq., Richard Ferdinand Cox, Esq., 
Assistants; — Mr. Deodatus Eaton, and Mr. 
Crews Dudley, Bailiffs; together with Mr. 



60 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Percival Walsh, the City Solicitor, attended by 
the Town Clerk, in his robe of office, which 
resembled, in some degree, the undress black 
silk gown worn by Gentlemen Commoners of 
the University, — were all severally introduced, 
and received by the Lord Mayor with a warmth 
and cordiality, adequate to that which they had 
so kindly manifested on the preceding day. 

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, the Rev. Dr. 
Richard Jenkyns, Master of Balliol, preceded, 
as usual, by one of the Yeomen Bedels, carrying 
a large mace, — and the Rev. Dr. Thomas 
Edward Bridges, President of Corpus Christi 
College, — the Rev. Dr. George William Hall, 
Master of Pembroke; the Rev. Dr. Philip 
Nicholas Shuttleworth, Warden of New College; 
the Rev. Dr. John Dean, Principal of St. Mary's 
Hall ; and Dr. John David Macbride, Principal 
of Magdalene Hall, and Lord Almoner's Prae- 
lector in Arabic ; together with the two Proc- 
tors, the Rev. George CummingRashleigh, m. a., 
and the Rev. Wadham Harbin, m. a . ; the 
Rev. Mr. Woodgate, to whom allusion has 
before been made, and other Members of the 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 61 

University, all of whom were dressed in full 
academicals, were severally introduced to the 
Lady Mayoress. To this distinguished list of 
visitors must be added the names of John Fane, 
Esq. , one of the Members of Parliament for the 
County of Oxford ; and James Haughton 
Langston, Esq., and John Ingram Lockhart, 
Esq., Members for the City of Oxford. 

When dinner was announced, the party, 
amounting to nearly sixty persons, each gen- 
tleman taking charge of a fairpartner, descended 
to a long room on the ground floor. 

Every attention had been given by the pro- 
prietor of the Star, to render the dinner as 
excellent as the occasion required, and to fit up 
the dining-room with as much taste as its 
extent would admit of; and no means had 
been left untried to keep the apartment as cool 
as possible. Wreaths of flowers were hung 
thickly round it, and the windows, which 
opened on a garden, were overspread with 
branches of trees, to exclude, as much as 
possible, the warm beams of a western summer 
sun. The band of musicians now removed their 

6 



62 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

station from the entrance-hall, to the garden 
under the windows; where they played, at 
proper intervals, with excellent effect, the whole 
evening. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress 
took their seats at the head of the table : the 
Vice-Chancellor of the University sitting on 
the right hand of his Lordship, and the Chief 
Magistrate of Oxford on the left hand of her 
Ladyship. The Heads of Houses then took 
their seats, according to the priority of their 
admission to the degree of Doctor, alternating 
with the ladies and daughters of Aldermen 
Atkins, Magnay, Heygate, and Lucas. The 
Aldermen of London and of Oxford then filled 
the remainder of the table. 

Amidst much elegance and beauty, the Lady 
Mayoress attracted particular observation. Her 
Ladyship was arrayed in the most splendid 
manner, wore a towering plume of ostrich 
feathers, and blazed with jewels. 

When the Chaplain, by craving a blessing on 
the feast, had set the guests at liberty to address 
themselves to the dainties before them ; and the 
room was illuminated throughout by a profusion 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 63 

of delicate wax candles, which cast a light as of 
broad day over the apartment ; it would not 
have been easy for any eye, however accustomed 
to look on splendour, not to have been delighted, 
in no common manner, with the elegance of the 
classic and civic scene now exhibited in the 
dining-parlour of the first inn in Oxford. 

The accompaniments, indeed, fell short of 
that splendour which they would have had in 
the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House in 
London, but still the general effect was pecu- 
liarly striking; and, when the rank of the 
company is considered, may with truth be 
called brilliant. 

The conversation naturally assumed that tone 
best qualified for the discovery of those talents 
and learning, of which the evening had drawn 
together so select and bright a constellation. 

After dinner, as soon as the health of the 
King, the welfare of the Church, the prosperity 
of the University and City, and other toasts of 
loyalty, literature, and religion, had been 
honoured, the Lord Mayor proposed the health of 
the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford . This was follow- 



64 

ed by toasts to the health of the other Heads 
of Houses, the Professors, and Proctors; the 
Worshipful the Mayor, and other Magistrates 
of Oxford ; and the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor 
of London : each toast giving rise to such 
acknowledgments, as the individuals, to whom 
they referred, considered appropriate and ade- 
quate. The health of the Lady Mayoress, and 
the other ladies of the company, was proposed 
by one of the Heads of Houses ; the toast was 
hailed with warm demonstrations of respect — 
and the honour was acknowledged with consi- 
derable point and taste by Mr. Lockhart, the 
Member, at her Ladyship's request. 

The ladies, who, to the great gratification of 
the company, had sat longer than is usual at 
most tables, at length obeyed the signal of the 
Lady Mayoress, and retired to the drawing- 
room — 

" With grace, 
Which won who saw, to wish their stay." 

The conversation was, however, in no degree 
changed in their absence. The Lady Mayoress 
and her fair friends had taken their share in it 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 65 

with much good sense and delicacy ; and their 
departure, so far from being succeeded by that 
obstreperous and vulgar merriment, or anything 
like that gross profligacy of conversation, which 
indicates rejoicing at being emancipated from 
the restraint of female presence, only gave 
occasion to the Magistrates of Oxford to 
express their wish, that, in the invitations to 
their corporation dinners, arrangements could 
be made, that would include the ladies. 

There can be no question, that the influence 
which well-educated and amiable females have 
upon society is immense. Among other important 
effects which it produces, it prevents that con- 
versational mannerism which is otherwise found 
to characterize the social intercourse of men ; 
and it promotes the observance of those little 
courtesies, on which so much of the comfort of 
life unquestionably depends. 

At ten o'clock the gentlemen were summoned 
to the drawing-room ; where they found that 
the lady who had graced the luncheon with her 
presence, again gave the Lady Mayoress the 
honour of her society. It is a remark of 

F 



66 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Aristotle, in his Treatise on the Drama, that its 
purpose is best answered by such events as 
are unexpected*. The unexpected honour 
of this lady's visit was a forcible illustration 
of this position of the great critic of anti- 
quity; it greatly promoted the amusement 
of the company. She appeared to have passed 
the meridian of life ; was in person somewhat 
charge d'embonpoint, with a countenance of 
much drollery of expression, which had once 
been handsome. Her manners and appear- 
ance gave instant evidence that she was a 
most eccentric personage. The younger part 
of the company, indeed, were kept in a continual 
agony of stifled laughter ; so much were they 
amused with every thing she did, and with 
every thing she said. She revolved through the 
drawing-room like a vagrant comet in its orbit, 
sometimes taking her seat at the side of one 
lady, and then at the side of another ; at one 
time talking familiarly, — for she was known to 



" Tuvrcc <5e yu/ercu (Acihisa, Toiavra, orav ysvviTai 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 67 

them all, — with every Doctor who had not 
adroitness enough to move out of her way : and 
at last wedged herself in upon the sofa, already 
filled as much as comfortable session would 
admit ; where she closed her evening eccentri- 
cities, by humorous converse with the venerable 
Chamberlain of London. 



f2 



68 



THURSDAY. 



While the morning was yet early, — for the 
Lord Mayor had the night before requested 
his friends not to devote too many hours to 
repose, — the sound of footsteps, passing and 
repassing, was heard through the inn, accom- 
panied by whispering consultations among the 
servants ; who were collecting, at every chamber 
door, the luggage of the party, in order that 
every thing might be in readiness for embarking, 
as soon as the Lord Mayor had risen. Long 
before seven o'clock, the whole city was in 
motion ; and flocks of people were seen sweep- 
ing along the streets, and hastening to the 
banks of Christ Church Meadow, — the point 
from which the embarkation would best be 
seen. 

Every place from which a view was likely to 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 69 

be had, was crowded with expecting multitudes. 
The old wooden bridge, the windows of the 
late Sir H. Taunton's House, the branches of 
the trees, — every spot, in short, that could 
admit a face or footstep, was alive with spec- 
tators. 

The State Barge, — on the sides of which the 
ten splendid scarlet silk banners were brightened 
as they waved gently in the rising sun, — was 
attended by the shallop of the Thames Navi- 
gation Committee of the City of London ; on 
board of which were Messrs. Stevenson, Austin, 
Bennett, Carter, Daw, Dowler, Green, Hunt, 
Ingall, Ledger, Lister, Mathie, Saunders, and 
Mr. Stephen Leach, Clerk of the Works of 
the Thames Navigation, in the Jurisdiction of 
the City of London, westward of London Bridge ; 
who were taking their view of the state of the 
navigation in the upper districts. In another 
large boat, half-covered with an awning, was 
his Lordship's Yeoman of the Household, who 
had charge of the provisions for the Lord Mayor's 
party ; together with the cook, who was, at 
the time of embarkation, busily engaged in 



70 

preparing a fire in a grate, fixed in the bow of 
the boat. 

About seven o'clock, signals of the approach 
of His Lordship's party were descried and heard. 
The populace, thickly stationed on the road 
through which the carriages were to pass, 
caught up the acclamation ; and announced to 
all who thronged the margin of the river, that 
the Lord Mayor was coming. His Lordship 
and the Lady Mayoress alighted from the 
carriage at the bridge, and walked through the 
respectful crowd, which divided to give them 
passage ; and were at once conveyed to the State 
Barge, in the Water Bailiff's boat. 

The whole party now quickly followed ; and, 
at a quarter after seven, amidst shouts of reite- 
rated applause from the surrounding multitudes, 
the City Barge, manned by the city watermen, 
in scarlet liveries, and all the other boats in 
attendance on His Lordship, were simulta- 
neously launched on the broad bosom of the 
princely Thames # . 

* The opinion, that the original name of this fine river is Isis, 
and that it has no pretensions to the name of Thames, till its 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 71 

The immense tide of population which had 
rolled forth from the city, flowed along with 
the boats a considerable distance, on both sides 
of the river ; and extreme delight was visible in 
every countenance. The weather, indeed, was 
of itself sufficient to give rise to joyous and 
happy feelings. The rays of a bright sun, 
streaming through an unclouded sky, poured 
their enlivening influence all around. It was 
quite one of those genial mornings, when we 
seem to draw in delight with the very air we 
breathe ; and to feel happy, we can scarcely tell 
why. 

As soon as the first tumults of rejoicing had 
in some degree subsided, and had left the party 
at liberty to look at the scenery around them ; 



confluence with the little river Tame, in the neighbourhood of 
Dorchester, in the County of Oxford, is now generally admitted 
to have no other authority than that which it derives from the 
fictions of the poet. The learned author of the " Additions to 
Camden's Britannia," has fairly and fully decided that this river 
was anciently called the Thames, long before it receives the 
waters of the Tame. 



72 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Oxford, in a retrospective view, appeared a beau- 
tiful and an affecting object. You saw, indeed, 
only the clustering spires, and pinnacles, and 
domes of this illustrious city, rising from the 
plain ; but they well served to call to recollection 
the many monastic buildings, the great gothic 
quadrangles, the solemn halls, the venerable 
galleries, the shadowy cloisters, and the se- 
questered walks, which had been visited the 
day before. And you could not reflect on the 
number of its libraries, paintings, statues, 
monuments, with its stupendous apparatus of 
universal science, — on the venerable character of 
its rulers, the erudition of its professors, and the 
rank, fortune, and number of its students, — 
without devoutly wishing, " that whatever tends 
to the advancement of true religion, and useful 
learning, may, in Oxford, for ever flourish and 
abound.'' 

The vessels paused, for about five minutes, at 
Ifley Pound Lock, just long enough to admit 
of the eye glancing at the venerable tower of 
Ifley Church, whose appearance bespeaks great 
antiquity, and is said to exhibit a very fine 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 73 

example of Saxon architecture. As soon as 
Sanford Lock was passed, where the water falls 
about seven feet, the beauties of Nuneham w r ere 
beginning to rise in full prospect to the view. 
The river now takes a bold, though somewhat 
meandering sweep to the right, and exhibits, 
to great advantage, the seat of Earl Harcourt ; 
a regular and elegant stone edifice, on a fine 
verdant brow, the dome of the church rising 
above the woods that stretch to a great extent 
on either side of it. It is to be regretted, 
however, that at this period of the pleasure- 
voyage, — for it was now about nine in the morn- 
ing, — the party were all so unitedly engaged in 
the elegant cabin of the State Barge, in doing 
honour to the delicacies of the Lord Mayor's 
breakfast table, that the beauties of Nuneham 
were not seen to the best advantage. 

About ten o'clock the civic party passed the 
ancient town of Abingdon, which, with the 
various houses and gardens covering the banks 
of the river on either side, and the bridge of 
three arches, an ancient structure, heightens 
very much the picturesque appearance of the 



74 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

scene. The river, however, soon becomes 
barren of interesting or beautiful objects. The 
shores are flat on either side, and there is 
nothing to relieve an extensive view of arable 
cultivation, except the church of Sutton 
Courtney. The village of Appleford offers 
nothing to the attention ; and the white tower 
of Long Whittenham Church, on a broken 
slope, sprinkled with trees, alone enlivened the 
advancing scenes of the voyage. From thence 
the river makes a sudden northern bend towards 
Clifton Ferry ; from which place the Thames 
was made navigable to Oxford, by Act of 
Parliament, in the twenty-first year of James 
the First. The navigation here appeared to be 
particularly defective ; for, with all the advan- 
tage of the exertions that had been made by 
the Water-Bailiff's directions, and the expense 
that had been incurred for the supply of water ; 
the country having been comparatively drained 
for several miles along the upper districts, — and 
though the City Barge and Shallop, and the 
attendant boats, drew scarcely more than two 
feet of water, — they were detained at Clifton a 
6 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 75 

considerable length of time. Such hindrances 
would, doubtless, be in a great degree removed, 
— and they are said to happen very frequently, — 
if the side-cut lately made there, had been 
continued lower down. This cut, as well as 
that at Culham, should have opening weirs at 
the head of them to deepen the water in the 
cuts, which at present is by no means sufficient, 
and so to prevent the flush-water from passing 
away too quickly. With respect, however, to 
the water below Clifton Ferry, as it would be 
impossible, owing to the rocky bottom of the 
shore, to increase its depth, — that portion of the 
river might be avoided, by another side-cut, 
with a lock and weir on the Berkshire side. 

Other improvements might here be made ; 
and, indeeed, in all the upper districts of the 
Thames Navigation ; by penning up a sufficient 
quantity of the still abundant supply of water 
to subserve, at all times, the purposes of Navi- 
gation without flushing, — deepening the shoals, 
— reducing projecting points on the banks, 
making, and preserving uninterrupted, conve- 
nient towing paths, with the barge - channel 



76 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

uniformly contiguous thereto ; keeping the 
locks in good repair, and well attended, and 
lessening, as much as possible, the number of 
the ferry-boats, by removing the necessity for 
them. 

The river, which now becomes the principal 
feature of the landscape, widens into conside- 
rable breadth ; and an island, which divides it, 
is connected by two bridges with the opposite 
banks. 

The crowds of people, — men, women, and 
children, — who had accompanied the barge 
from Oxford, were continually succeeded by 
fresh reinforcements from every town and village 
that is skirted by the river. Distant shouts of 
acclamation perpetually re-echoed from field to 
field, as the various rustic parties, with their 
fresh and blooming faces, were seen hurrying 
forth from their cottages and gardens ; climbing 
trees, struggling through copses, and traversing 
thickets, to make their shortest way to the 
water-side. Handfuls of halfpence were 
scattered to the children as they kept pace in 
running along the banks with the City Barge ; 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 77 

and Mr. Alderman Atkins, who assisted the 
Lord Mayor in the distribution, seemed to enter, 
with more than common pleasure, into the enjoy- 
ment of the little children. It was gratifying to 
see the absence of selfish feeling manifested by 
some of the elder boys, who, forgetful of 
themselves, collected for the younger girls. 

There is, unquestionably, something genuine . 
and affectionate in the cheerfulness of the 
common people, when it springs from the 
bounty and familiarity of those above them : 
the warm glow of gratitude spreads over their 
mirth ; and a kind word, or look, or a little 
pleasantry, frankly said or done, — and which 
calls in no degree for any sacrifice of personal 
dignity, — always gladdens the heart of a 
dependent a thousand times more than oil and 
wine. It is wonderful, too, how much life and joy 
even one intelligent and good-humoured member 
of a pleasure party will diffuse around him. The 
fountain of indwelling delight, which animates 
his own bosom, overflows to others ; and every 
thing around quickly freshens into smiles. 

In the immediate vicinity of Little Whitten- 



78 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

ham, near to the town of Dorchester, the Tame 
mingles its waters with the Thames, not as an 
equal, but as a tributary, stream. Its j unction, 
indeed, scarcely strikes the observation ; and, 
were it not for a wooden bridge, thrown across 
its mouth, as a communication between the 
meadows which it divides, the slender supply of 
water which the majestic Thames receives from 
the Tame would be hardly noticed . 

At half-past three, the barges passed through 
Benson Lock, distant about five-and-twenty 
miles from Oxford, and thus entered the fourth 
district of the Thames. As the Lord Mayor 
drew nigh to Wallingford, reports of guns were 
heard, fired from its bridge of many arches, to 
salute his Lordship's passage. 

The party were now summoned down to 
dinner ; much time, however, was not expended 
at this meal. The scenery was beginning to be 
much too interesting to be passed unnoticed. 
The river here glides along amidst successive 
scenes of varying beauty : the village of Goring 
on one bank of the river, and that of Streatley 
on the other, — the numerous islets that spot 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 79 

the river,— with the Basilden Woods in the 
back-ground, present such a picture of beauty 
as might well be transcribed upon the canvass. 

On approaching Whitchurch, the stream 
makes a considerable bend, and taking the 
direction of Shooter's Hill, — a downy ridge that 
extends from Basilden Wood to Pangbourne, — 
reflects its verdant slopes and chalky excavations. 
Whitchurch is a small but pretty village. On 
passing beneath the bridge, the retrospective 
scenery is exceedingly picturesque and pleasing ; 
the river, which is divided by an island planted 
with willows, — the falls of water, pouring over, 
or bursting through, the flood-gates of the 
lock ; the tower of Pangbourne Church, rising 
from the village; the spire of Whitchurch, 
indistinctly seen through surrounding trees ; a 
mill, with all its interesting accompaniments; 
the upper line of Shooter's Hill, and Basilden 
Woods beyond it, are the objects that compose 
this delightful picture. 

Mr. Simeon, of Whitchurch, one of the 
Navigation Commissioners of the Upper 
Districts, was invited on board the City State 



80 

Barge, with the two ladies, Mrs. Allan Gardner 
and her friend, who were walking with him. 
They proceeded a few miles towards Reading, 
and were much gratified by the polite attention 
of his Lordship and the Lady Mayoress. Several 
other persons, too, were invited on board in the 
course of the day, amongst whom were three 
nice boys, relations of Mr. Secretary Peel. 

The river now flows on between meadows, 
whose verdure had apparently been benefitted 
by the rains of the preceding week ; with near, 
or more receding uplands, in arable cultivation 
and shaded inclosures. After a course of about 
three miles, the stream makes a sudden bend to 
the left, beneath a long abrupt bank, and 
approaches Caversham. The road, which is 
here frequently near the water-side, was lined 
with spectators, some on foot, some on horse- 
back, and some in equipages of every kind, to ' 
see the Barges as they passed. 

Among the equestrians, two are deserving 
that their looks and equipments should be 
alluded to in more than general terms. The 
animals they bestrode, were a couple of broken 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 81 

down ponies, gaunt and rusty, who had possibly 
once seen better days. The men themselves 
were not unsuitable figures for such a pair of 
steeds. They rode with short stirrups, that 
brought their knees almost under cover of the 
shaggy mane that overspread the ewe necks of 
the poor creatures ; and carried their short thick 
sticks perpendicular in their hands. Such was 
the appearance of these country wights as they 
shambled along the road that gave them so 
good a view of the City State Barge. And so 
mightily pleased was the Lord Mayor with their 
uncouth and ludicrous appearance, that he 
hailed one of them, and asked him to be the 
bearer of a message to Reading, touching his 
Lordship's carriage. The fellow seemed to feel 
as he never felt before. An honour was about 
to be conferred upon him alone, — to be the 
avant courier of the Lord Mayor of London, — 
above and beyond all the other riders, drivers, 
and walkers, of whatever quality and degree, 
who had thronged to the view of the civic party . 
And no sooner had his Lordship flung him a 



82 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

piece of money, and told him to " make haste 
to the Bear Inn, Reading, and order the Lord 
Mayor's carriage to meet the barge at Caversham 
Bridge," than the fellow instantly belaboured 
the starveling ribs of the poor animal that carried 
him, with kicks and cudgel ; who, in a moment, 
dashed briskly forward, snuffling and snorting, 
across the fields. In the eagerness of his flight, 
the doughty messenger had much ado to 
maintain his seat ; he sometimes slipped on one 
side of the saddle, and sometimes on the other ; 
while the skirts of his unbuttoned coat fluttered 
far out behind him. He executed his commission , 
however, with fidelity equalled only by the 
dispatch which he had used ; for, when the 
barge arrived at Caversham Bridge, the carriage 
was waiting the Lord Mayor's arrival. Other 
carriages were also in attendance. It was now 
nearly nine o'clock ; and, as the evening shadows 
were beginning to shroud the surrounding 
scenery, the Lady Mayoress, and the other ladies 
of the party, except the Misses Atkins, fearful of 
too long exposure to the night air, landed at the 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 83 

bridge, amidst the firing of guns and other 
demonstrations of respectful salutation; and 
proceeded in their carriages to Reading. 

The State Barge now resumed its passage. 
The sun had whirled down his broad disk into 
the west; and the evening twilight just served 
to show obscurely the tranquil stream of water 
over which the vessel glided ; and the shapeless 
forms of country by which it was surrounded. 
The cool, and yet mild air, of a clear starlight 
summer night, was quite refreshing after the 
glare and heat of a long day ; and the perfume 
which it wafted from the neighbouring trees and 
meadows, bathed in the evening dew, was 
exquisitely fragrant. 

At a quarter after nine, the State Barge 
entered the river Kennet ; and a few minutes 
before ten arrived at the High Bridge, in the 
centre of the town of Reading. The distance 
from Oxford, by water, is about nine-and-thirty 
miles ; and might certainly have been made in 
less than fourteen hours and a half, if the 
navigation of the Upper Districts had been more 

g2 



84 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

attended to. Carriages were at the bridge, 
which conveyed his Lordship and friends to 
the Bear Inn; where, after partaking of a 
sumptuous supper, they separated, and betook 
themselves to the silence and retirement of their 
chambers. 






VISIT TO OXFORD. 85 



FRIDAY, 



The brief time that the party tarried in 
Reading, the birth-place of Archbishop Laud, 
admitted of their seeing nothing more than the 
ruins of its abbey, — an abbey formerly one of 
the most considerable in England, both for the 
magnitude of its building, and the state of its 
endowments. Its abbots were mitred, and 
were privileged with a seat in parliament. The 
refectory, in which the councils and parliament 
of Henry VI.'s thirty-first year are supposed to 
have been held, still remains ; but the cloister 
has been long since demolished. Nothing now 
remains of it, save ruins of massy blocks of flint 
walls. 

At eight o'clock the whole party were again 
assembled on-board the City Barge. Their 
number was considerably augmented by the 
accession of Alderman Sir Claudius Stephen 



86 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Hunter, his two nieces, and his brother ; Mr. 
Alderman Birch ; Mr. Alderman and Mrs. 
Waithman; Mr. Simeon; and Mr. Alderman 
and Mrs. Heygate, with Miss Mc Murdo, who 
had intended to rejoin the party sooner ; but had 
been detained, by the imposing magnificence of 
the views at Blenheim, too late to meet the 
barge at Wallingford. 

The bridge at Reading, near which the Lord 
Mayor embarked, was thronged beyond measure 
with spectators ; and scarcely could a passage be 
obtained, so completely were the pathways at 
the river side choked with people. The throng 
and confusion, however, was of a lively and 
cheerful character. All came forth to see and 
to enjoy; and appeared determined that, 
whatever might be the inconvenience occasioned 
by the pressure, it should not, in the smallest 
measure, be- allowed to chafe their temper. 

The gentlemen on board the Navigation 
Shallop, which was in close attendance, waved 
their hats as the Lord Mayor ascended the 
circular wooden staircase that led upon the 
deck of the State Barge, and this demonstration 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 87 

of respect was accompanied by loud shouts of joy 
from those on shore, by the ringing of bells, and 
the firing of guns. The extreme respect and 
gratulation, indeed, with which his Lordship 
was everywhere received throughout the voyage, 
it would be ungrateful to omit, and yet tedious 
to repeat. 

In little more than two miles from the spot 
where the Kennet loses itself in the ampler 
waters of the Thames, is situated the pretty 
village of Sunning, where there is an ancient, 
but apparently-neglected seat, with many a 
lofty elm scattered about it; — so fair for 
situation, that no one can pass it, without 
wishing anxiously for a return of those better 
days which it is reported formerly to have 
known. On the opposite bank, in Oxfordshire, 
the church of Shiplake produces a very pretty 
effect from the water. The river here makes a 
considerable bend towards Wargrave. On the 
high ground, near this village, is a very 
handsome house, either way commanding a fine 
view of the Thames, towards Reading on the 



88 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

south, and Henley on the north. On the 
opposite side is Boulney House, the grounds of 
which are planted in a pleasing taste. 

The party took breakfast at nine o'clock. 

Park Place was the next magnificent object 
that attracted attention. Its successive pro- 
jections, with their intervening valleys, its 
wood, lawns, and declivities, are in a style of 
beauty which none of the other landscapes near 
the Thames can at all exceed. The house, 
which is elegantly chaste and simple, is said to 
stand nearly three hundred feet above the river, 
but is well sheltered by woods and plantations* 
The river is here interspersed with islets ; and, 
as the vessel glided through their little channels, 
the elevated beauties of this delightful place 
appeared to very great advantage. Before the 
last bold projection of Park Place, the Thames 
makes a gentle bend, and discovers an excellent 
view of Henley Bridge. This bridge is built of 
white stone, and consists of five arches, sur- 
mounted by a low balustrade ; the whole forming 
a design of unusual simplicity and elegance,, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 89 

— certainly the most beautiful structure of the 
kind, on the Thames, that had yet offered itself 
to the notice of the party. 

Of the beauties of Henley much had been 
imagined ; but they surpassed expectation. It 
is situated in a vale, close to the banks of the 
river, with an amphitheatre of woody hills 
behind. Its lofty tower, of beautiful proportions, 
standing full before the view, adds considerably 
to the effect produced by the fine bridge and 
surrounding landscape. 

The Reverend Dr. Schobell, minister of Henley 
parish, and Chairman of the Commissioners 
of the Upper District of the Thames, — whose 
local information and gentlemanly manners 
gave him a title equally to kindness and 
respect, — was now, invited by the Lord Mayor 
on board the barge, with all the usual forms of 
politeness. 

The morning had, hitherto, been somewhat 
overcast; but the sun, which, by this time, 
had risen considerably above the horizon, now 
began to shine out in all its splendour; and 
displayed the banners which waved over the 



90 

vessel with considerable effect. The vapours 
rose like a curtain before the scenery, and 
shewed the town of Henley, with the beauty of 
the adjacent country, to great advantage. 

The Thames, clear, deep, and still, sleeping, 
as it were, in summer tranquillity, now appeared 
beyond expression beautiful. The band of 
music, which had accompanied the barge from 
Reading, and was now playing some national 
airs in a very spirited manner, rendered this part 
of the excursion highly gratifying. 

Mr. Alderman Birch here called to the 
recollection of the party, the beautiful lines of 
Sir Thomas Denham on the River Thames : 

" Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ; 
Strong, without rage ; without o'erflowing, full." 

Oh leaving Henley, and near the entrance of 
the county of Buckingham, Fawley Court is 
seen on the left ; a place that gives a very 
distinguishing character to the western shore of 
this part of the Thames. The Mansion House, 
a large square regular edifice, tells at once that 
it belongs to family and fortune. There is 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 91 

in the middle of the river, opposite this fine 
domain, the most beautiful island on the 
Thames, shaded with trees of large growth. 

The Berkshire side of the river, after passing 
Henley, has but little scenery that will admit 
comparison with the woody amphitheatres of 
the opposite county, till you arrive at Culham 
Court ; which certainly appears to command a 
most lovely prospect. The house is a handsome 
modern building, standing half way down an 
expansive irregular brow, scattered over with 
large trees, and gradually descending, in various 
unequal slopes, to the water's edge. 

On the opposite side, in Buckinghamshire, 
are the remains of Medmenham Abbey. The 
valley through which the Thames now flows is 
particularly expansive and picturesque ; there is 
no part of the river where the windings are so 
frequent, and of such long continuance, as in 
that below Culham Court. 

Harleyford, the seat of Sir William Clayton, 
who now joined the party onboard the State 
Barge, is on the same side of the river, and 
situate on a gentle slope. The grounds, which 



92 THE LORD MAYORS 

are seen from the water, range along a deep 
shady bank, that divides them from a large 
upper lawn, surrounded with wood; and where 
the fir and the beech, of unusual growth, blend 
their contrasted verdure. The worthy baronet 
had ordered a salute of guns to be fired from 
the opposite heights as the Lord Mayor passed. 

From the interesting object of Bisham Abbey 
the river flows on beautifully, for about a mile, 
to Marlow ; between meadows, backed by arable 
uplands to the left, and a line of woods to the 
right. 

A salute of several guns was fired from 
Marlow Bridge as the Lord Mayor passed it ; 
and the bells of the church had been previously 
heard at some considerable distance. A fine 
display of scenery now opened on the view : 
the quarry woods were seen in uninterrupted 
beauty, rising boldly on the Berkshire side; 
either retiring into the meadows, or hanging 
over the river, which here divides itself into two 
channels; one of which, being reserved for 
Marlow Poundlock, occasions a waterfall that 
adds another pleasing object to the scene. It 






VISIT TO OXFORD. 93 

is not easy, however, to give any adequate idea 
of the passage through the willowed islands of 
this part of the stream, nor of the grand stretch 
of shade which the quarry woods create. 

Hedsor Lodge, Lord Boston's delightful 
seat, was the next object of interest in descend- 
ing the river. The grounds are thrown about 
by nature in that beautiful variety, which art 
may imitate, indeed, but can never hope to equal. 
The house is shaded with lofty trees, among 
which the little church, situated on a knoll, is 
deeply imbosomed. 

The tower of Cookham Church, separated 
from the village by a screen of tre.es on the 
opposite bank, is a picturesque and prominent 
feature in the scenery of this part of the river : 
and its effect was, on this occasion, strikingly 
increased, by the crowds of spectators who 
thronged the shore. 

The vessel now passed under what are termed 
the Hedsor Heights, rising to a considerable 
elevation from their chalky base ; and soon 
arrived before the rich and extensive woods of 
Cliefden : where the scene, receiving all the 



94 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

advantage of season and circumstance, now 
requires a particular and enlarged description. 

Cliefden is, by water, fifty-three miles from 
London, and about three miles from Maiden- 
head. The house, — of which the central part 
was destroyed by fire about thirty years ago, — 
was built in the reign of Charles the Second, 
by the celebrated George Villiers, Duke of 
Buckingham ; whom Dryden has doomed to a 
painful immortality in the few following lines : 

" A man so various, that he seemed to be 
Not one, but all mankind's epitome ; 
Stiff in opinion, — always in the wrong, — 
Was every thing by starts, but nothing long ; 
Who, in the course of one revolving moon, 
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon : 
Then, all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking ; 
Besides a thousand freaks that died in thinking."* 

From the wings of the building, which yet 
remain, it appears to have been a regular and 
stately mansion ; and is said to have enjoyed a 
higher elevation than even Windsor Castle. The 

* Dryden 's Poems : Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. 

6 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 95 

grounds are kept in admirable order ; and every 
one who is influenced by a love of fine scenery 
will admit, that nothing can be more imposing 
than the magnificence of Cliefden. The irre- 
gularity of its surface — the inequality of its 
heights — the variety of its trees, oaks, beeches, 
firs, and maples, — 

" Its lofty groves, and fragrant shades, 
Its boundless prospects, and its op'ning glades, — " 

its vast and verdant lawns, — its chalky, per- 
pendicular, and awful precipices, on the brinks 
of which gigantic trees heap up their rich piles 
of foliage, — form altogether so rare a combination 
of the sublime and beautiful in nature; that 
whoever has any thing like an exquisite sense 
of her beautiful forms, and harmonious combi- 
nations, will find in Cliefden its full gratification. 
Cliefden Spring is now the property of the 
Right Honourable Lord Viscount Kirkwall j 
who is continually allowing, with much kindness, 
the use of the grounds, and of an octagonal 
temple, at the foot of the wood and near the 
Thames ; for those summer parties, which are 
every now and then being formed, in the course 



96 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

of the year, to enjoy the tranquillity of a rural 

banquet 

" In Cliefden's proud alcove." 

It was here that the civic flotilla arrived in 
the afternoon of Friday. The noble owner of 
this delightfully-sequestered place having most 
handsomely granted the use of it for the Lord 
Mayor's party, invitations had been sent to all the 
nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood of 
Marlow, Henley, Sunning, and Maidenhead ; to 
honour his Lordship and suite with their 
company at dinner, at Cliefden Spring, on this 
day. 

Reports began, in consequence, soon to 
circulate through the neighbourhood, that the 
Lord Mayor would dine at Cliefden in his way 
to London. Preparations had been made for 
this fite champetre, in a manner corresponding 
with the rank of the guests who were expected 
to be present on the occasion : and, at a quarter 
before five, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress 
entered the temple, in which the dinner was 
served ; and took their seats at the upper end of 
a long dining table, which extended considerably 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 97 

beyond the limits of the building. This com- 
modious apartment, of which the pointed arched 
windows reach down to the ground, is well 
shaded by trees of large dimensions and 
abundant foliage; and is erected near to the 
fountain called Cliefden Spring, which rises 
there, and pours its rippling current, sparkling 
over stones, down a gentle declivity into the 
river. 

There were present, at this rural fete, the 
Right Honourable Lord and Lady Kirkwall, — 
the Right Honourable Lord and Lady Boston, 
— Sir Gilbert and Lady East, — J. Pocock, Esq., 
— Broom Witts, Esq., — G. H. Leycester, Esq. 
and his Lady, — rhe Rev. Dr. Schobell, — the 
Worshipful the Mayors of Reading, Windsor, 
and Maidenhead, — Mrs. Fromow, the amiable 
mother of the Lady Mayoress, and her son, 
P. J. Fromow, Esq., — George Venables, Esq., 
the Lord Mayor's brother, — and the Misses 
Venables, the Lord Mayor's sisters; together 
with an elegant company, to the number of 
between sixty and seventy persons. 



98 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

The dinner consisted of cold dainties ; and 
the tables were strewed with a profusion of the 
sweetest flowers, which had been sent expressly 
for the occasion, by the kindness of Lady 
Boston. 

A band of musicians were stationed at a 
suitable distance from the marquee which over- 
spread that part of the table not included 
within the building; and played extremely 
well. 

The gardens and grounds were thronged with 
spectators, either strolling about, or seated on 
the grass ; and, on the opposite banks, several 
tents were erected for general convenience; 
around which the children shouted and threw 
up their hats. Boats of all descriptions, bearing 
parties intent only on enjoying the scene of 
pleasure which had been prepared, were floating 
on the river ; and the air echoed and re-echoed 
with the sound of guns and music, and great 
rustic rejoicings. The day was serenely fine 
and beautiful ; and the Thames seemed to awe 
itself into stillness, as if to listen more atten- 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 99 

tively to the high applause with which the 
arrival at this spot of its Chief Conservator was 
welcomed. 

At the close of the dinner, and just before the 
time of returning thanks, the Yeoman of the 
Lord Mayor's Household appeared at the head 
of the table, bearing in his hands a massive 
silver-gilt cup, known by the name of the 
Loving Cup, capable of containing, at the least, 
two quarts, rilled with spiced wine, diluted, and 
always used at the Mansion House on state 
occasions. 

When the names of the greater part of the 
company had been severally announced, accord - 
ing to ancient custom, the Lord Mayor rose 
from his seat ; and, pledging the courtesy of 
Lady Kirkwall, who was on his right hand, 
raised the cup to his lips, while her Ladyship, 
having risen at the same time, held the cover; 
and in this way, each one drinking to his 
neighbour, the cup passed round the table.* 

* It may not, perhaps, be altogether without interest, to give 
the form in which this hospitable relic of the olden time,— 
probably of even more ancient date than the renowned Wassail 

h2 



100 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

The increasing pressure of the surrounding 
people now rendered the adoption of some plan 
necessary by which their curiosity could be 
better gratified . Arrangements were accordingly 
made to admit the female part of the spectators, 
in small successive parties, to walk round the 
tables, as the company were seated at dinner ; 
and it was curious to see how many eager eyes 
were strained, and fingers pointed, to distinguish 
the individuals of the party. But it was some- 
thing more than a mere idle feeling of curiosity 
that prompted this anxiety in the honest 
peasantry to see the Lord Mayor of London. 

Bowl, — is usually presented to the company. At this banquet, 
the names, — which the Yeoman of the Household previously 
announces, and which, of course, will vary with the occasion, — 
were as follows :— " The Right Honourable Lord Viscount 
Kirkwall,— the Right Honourable Lord Boston, — Sir Gilbert 
East, Baronet, — Alderman Sir Claudius Stephen Hunter, Baronet, 
— Mr. Alderman Birch, — Mr. Alderman Atkins, — Mr. Alderman 
Magnay, — Mr. Alderman Waithman, — Mr. Alderman Lucas, — 
the Worshipful the Mayors of Reading, Maidenhead, and 
Windsor,— the Rev. Dr. Schobell, — Knights, Esquires, Ladies 
and Gentlemen all, — the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of 
the City of London, and the Lady Mayoress, drink to you in a 
Loving Cup, and bid you all a hearty welcome." 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 101 

The home-bred charities of the heart were in it. 
His Lordship was now in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of his own paternal fields. With his 
early life they had been many of them familiar ; 
and they now grouped around him, to recognize 
his claim to their affectionate and true esteem : 
for they said, — " He was born in our village. " 
Such instances of unaffected kindness and 
attachment are beyond measure pleasing. No 
other testimonies, indeed, are half so valuable to 
a man, as those which are borne spontaneously 
by those who know him intimately : no love, 
no applause, half so sweet and gratifying, as 
that which springs up in his native place. And 
whatever approbation may be awarded to the 
individual who gives occasion to these remarks, 
elsewhere ; however high and wide the renown 
may be, which, from early boyhood to the robe 
of dignity, he has sought in a doubtful world ; 
and in quest of which many a long life-time 
has been wasted ; however full may be the harvest 
of applause which he may have reaped ; yet, 
when the bustle of public life is over, and the 
weary heart and the failing head shall indicate 



102 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

that the hour of his departure from this transitory 
scene will not be much longer delayed ; it may be, 
that he will then cast back a look of filial fondness 
upon his paternal home ; and will seek to sleep 
in his father's sepulchre, and to mingle his dust 
with that of his kindred and his early friends. 

The evening was now beginning to be late, 
and preparations were made for the re-embarka- 
tion. The ladies of the party had early with- 
drawn from the dinner-tables, for the purpose 
of taking that more enlarged view of the 
grounds, and of the surrounding country, which 
a large temple, on an embowered point, 
commands ; and were now seen returning down 
one of those shaded walks which wind round to 
a very pretty rustic building, — called the Root 
House, — situated on an eminence, in memory 
of the well-known duel between the Duke of 
Buckingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury. 

The oarsmen had assembled at their respective 
stations ; the horses were in readiness on the 
towing-path; the State Barge was brought 
close to the water-side ; and, at half-past eight, 
the Lord Mayor resumed his passage down the 
1 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 103 

river, accompanied by all the nobility and gentry 
who had been present at the entertainment. 

These magnificent and delightful grounds, 
which fast receded from the view, were rendered 
particularly interesting, — as indeed are most of 
the ancient and hereditary parks that embower 
this island, — from the traditionary anecdotes 
that are told of those who once resided there. 
The gifted, and, at one time, the admired and 
popular Duke of Buckingham, for whom Cliefden 
House was originally reared, filled some of the 
highest offices in the kingdom, during the 
reign of Charles the Second; and possessed 
an income of almost fifty thousand pounds a 
year ! His talents, which were certainly of the 
highest order, he could so skilfully direct, as 
equally to charm the presbyterian Fairfax and 
the licentious Charles ; — to ridicule, by turns, 
the solemn chancellor and the merry king ; — 
and to plot, at one time, the ruin of his country 
by a cabal of bad ministers,* — of whom himself 

* Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, 
— a junto to whom the whole secrets of administration were 
confined, and who then were known by the name of the Cabal, 



104 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

was one, — and to uphold it at another by a 
band of bad patriots. 

Amid the gay and the licentious of the 
intriguing and all-licensed court of Charles the 
Second, the Duke of Buckingham was the most 
gay and the most licentious. For, though he 
lived in an age when what was called gallantry 
warranted the most atrocious actions of deceit 
and violence ; he yet pushed his debaucheries to 
such a flagrant height, as to draw down upon 
himself the censures of even that unblushing 
age. It was in the duel to which allusion has 
been made, that this unprincipled voluptuary 
slew the Earl of Shrewsbury; while the adulterous 
Countess of the noble Earl, — a woman abandoned 
to unheard-of gallantries, — held the Duke's 
horse, in the disguise of a page ; and was after- 
wards, — as the infamous libertine himself 
admitted, — caressed by him, before he had 
changed the blood-stained clothes in which he 
had slain her husband ! 

But retribution does sometimes, even in this 

a word which the initial letters of their names happened to 
compose. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 105 

life, arrest the wicked. A succession of disasters 
dragged down this miscalled nobleman from 
that elevated sphere, which his abilities might 
well have fitted him to adorn, but which he had 
so much disgraced by his vices ; his princely 
fortune was entirely expended ; and he was, at 
last, reduced to such penury, that he died in 
the utmost misery, in a paltry inn in Yorkshire : 

" In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half-hung, 
The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung ; 
On once a flock bed, but repaired with straw, 
Wi th tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw ; 
The George and Garter dangling from that bed 
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, 

- Great Villiers died !*" 

Thus affording one of those too frequent instances, 
in which a vigorous understanding and com- 
manding talents are found to run to waste ; and 
become more dangerous than advantageous to 
society, by the want of steady principle, and the 
improvidence of the possessor. 
Of a far different character, however, was 

* Pope's Moral Essays, Ep. III. 



106 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Cliefden once the residence. It was in these 
quiet abodes of nature, that George the Third 
passed the spring-time of his years. His father, 
Frederick, Prince of Wales, lived here in 
affluence and dignity, superintending the 
education of his children. And it is not im- 
probable that, in this sweet retirement, our late 
revered monarch quietly imbibed those prin- 
ciples of firm integrity and virtue, and cherished 
those domestic tastes, which have given such a 
lustre to his memory. A sheltered and secluded 
spot, near the pavilion, was shown as the play- 
ground of the royal pupil : but every part of 
the domain was fancied into some resort of his 
boyhood. Nor was it easy to dismiss from the 
mind those recollections of his character, which 
these lovely scenes had so pleasingly awakened. 
He was not one of those monarchs whose 
latter life extinguishes the hopes which their 
early years had raised ; nor was his that sup- 
plementary virtue which is offered in old age as 
an atonement for the vices of youth. When 
Rome saw her second emperor on the throne, 
she was filled with the most fearful forebodings 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 107 

of his future reign. The first exertions of his 
power were put forth to the slaughter of his 
subjects ; the most sacred rights of nature were 
violated ; and nothing was heard through the 
streets of Rome but cries and lamentations ; — 
scarcely a house escaping without a murder. 
But when the fervour of youthful impetuosity 
had subsided, and had yielded to the suggestions 
of maturer years ; the latter part of his life was 
as much distinguished for its benignity and 
moderation, as the former had been for its 
violence and cruelty : so that it has been said, 
if we could separate Octavius from Augustus, — 
his youth from his manhood, — he would be 
one of the most faultless princes in history. 

Now, contrast with Augustus the character of 
George the Third. His reputation was not 
made up of broken parcels of upright actions. 
His was not that deciduous laurel of fame, of 
which the verdure, in its spring, is bright and 
gay, but which time had stolen from his brow. 
He was virtuous in youth, and thus he became 
venerable in age. His hoary head was truly 
a crown of glory ; and indeed, if the hoary 



108 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

head is to be a crown of glory, it must be 
found in the way qfrighteo usness. 

In separate parts of our late sovereign's cha- 
racter, it were not impossible, perhaps, to find 
some who equalled, and others who excelled 
him. As a man of letters, he was probably not 
equal to the great Alfred ; nor was his temper 
milder or more amiable, perhaps, than that of 
our sixth Edward ; nor his sanctity more 
eminent than that of Henry the Sixth. But, 
in that rare combination of qualities that fitted 
him for such a high and awful station as monarch 
of this great and free country, he stands un- 
rivalled. 

For, while the little governors of this little 
globe were busied in sacrificing to the paltry 
motives of personal revenge, or the visionary 
projects of personal ambition, the treasure, and 
the blood, and the happiness, of the infatuated 
millions that obeyed them ; we had, in the late 
king, an instance of an understanding that rose 
above the grovelling ideas of vulgar monarchs; 
and of a genuine worth of character that scorned 
to wield a nation's folly to its own destruction. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 109 

The groans and the pangs of dying victims 
had no charms for him. He never engaged 
even in a just and necessary war without the 
utmost reluctance. The chief object of his 
administration was to render the people who 
surrounded and supported his throne blest and 
happy. He felt that his own happiness was 
interwoven with the happiness of his subjects; 
and, therefore, he never sought to aggrandize 
himself by impoverishing them. So far other- 
wise, that, to use the luminous language of 
Lord Bacon, when speaking of an earlier 
sovereign; — " He was but a steward in effect for 
the public; and what came from the people 
was but as moisture drawn from the earth, 
which gathered into a cloud, and fell back upon 
the earth again/' 

He was not permitted, indeed, — so profound 
and mysterious are the ways of Providence, — 
to witness the full and gorgeous splendour which 
burst upon the close of his long and prosperous 
reign. He saw not the beginning of that 
universal peace which now blesses the world. 
It pleased the Most High to visit him, for the 



110 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

last nine years of his valuable life, with one of 
the most awful calamities incident to human 
nature, — a calamity deplored throughout his 
vast empire, — and we wept at the awful spectacle 
of Majesty labouring under a permanent and 
hopeless eclipse. But we know that he walked 
in the light, while he possessed the light ; and 
that, while reason was continued to him, he held 
frequent and retired communion with his 
Heavenly Father. His sun, indeed, did set 
behind a cloud; but its brightness will be 
undiminished, when he rises from his tomb on 
the resurrection-morning ; in a firmament with- 
out clouds, over which night never shall extend 
her melancholy dominion. 

With our sense of his excellence, however, let 
us associate the recollection how many of the 
qualities that adorned his mind may be trans- 
ferred to ours. We are in much danger of 
viewing the life of kings as something entirely 
above the ordinary scenes of human existence. 
We are apt to consider it as the peculiar mode 
of existence of a distinct species of mankind, 
who live and act with manners incommunicable ; 



i 



VISIT TO OXFOttD. Ill 

who are rather the beholders, than the partakers, 
of human nature ; and from whom, therefore, 
little instruction can be derived, suited to the 
ordinary matters of common life. It was 
otherwise, however, with the late king. In his 
character was the rare association of private 
with public eminence. He did not, like the 
monarch s of the East, derive his dignity from 
his concealment. His merit was not of that 
kind which attracts most admiration at a 
distance : it grew into estimation the more 
closely it was inspected. When he withdrew 
from the public and official duties of his high 
station, and threw off the cumbrous ornaments 
of royalty ; his retirement was not the soft and 
pleasurable asylum of inactive sovereignty, 
accommodated to the elegance and refinement 
of a royal voluptuary ; but a calm recess, where 
to the splendour of a throne, he brought the 
milder and the sweeter radiance of domestic 
virtue. And, while he was establishing an 
illustrious and permanent reputation abroad, by 
every act of firm and legitimate resistance to 
that ambitious despot of modern times, who 



112 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

threatened to overwhelm all Europe with an 
irresistible torrent of conquest ; our late beloved 
king was labouring to establish a solid glory 
at home, by raising the depressed tone of 
virtuous practice. 

Every testimony which has let us into the 
history of this monarch's heart, has shown us 
the simple affections of human nature throbbing 
beneath the royal ermine ; and has concurred 
to prove, that the fond and affectionate father, 
— the tender and faithful husband, — the firm 
and sincere friend, — the invariably early riser, 
— the diligent economist of time, — the strict 
appropriator of every hour to its employment, — 
his temperance, his sobriety, his moderation, — 
the correct facetiousness with which he adorned 
society, — and, above all, his devotional and 
consistent piety, both in his closet and in his 
family; — these, with every other exemplification 
of whatsoever is lovely and of good report, were 
traits in the character of the good old king, — as 
we now love to call him, — which are remembered 
only to add value to the loss; to aggravate 
regret for that which can no longer be possessed ; 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 



113 



and to deepen sorrow for that, which, though it 
may be imitated, can never be recalled. 

In the history of his reign, he will be a model 
for succeeding sovereigns ; but, in the excel- 
lencies of his life, he is a model for all. And 
it should be carefully remembered, that the 
imitation of his virtues will be the best proof of 
our remembering them. 

It is now time to return to the civic party. — 
A long and bold range of woody hills, — under 
which are beautifully situated the Taplow Paper 
Mills, the property of George Venables, Esq., 
— skirted the eastern bank of the river, till the 
arrival of the barge at Maidenhead Bridge. 
Evening had now closed in too far to admit the 
view of Taplow House, the residence of Lord 
Kirkwall, and of Taplow Church, which may 
be taken from the bridge. Taplow House is 
situated on the southern brow of these fine hills, 
and is said to be an elegant and ancient edifice. 
The magnificence, indeed, of the domain is not 
to be compared with that of Cliefden ; but it is 
considered to equal it, in at least the charms of 
variety. 



114 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

The carriages of Lord and Lady Kirkwall, 
Lord and Lady Boston, and others of the party, 
were awaiting at Maidenhead the arrival of the 
State Barge. In taking leave of the Lord 
Mayor, Lord Kirkwall offered, in the most 
obliging manner, the accommodation of his 
grounds to the civic party on any future 
occasion; an offer of which the Lord Mayor 
appropriately acknowledged the kindness. 

Lady Kirkwall, — a young and lovely woman, 
— who must not be mentioned without the 
warmest encomium on her person, manners, 
and mind, — took leave of the Lady Mayoress in 
the most courteous manner, and was handed 
by her Lord into the carriage. The only ladies 
left on board, when the barge resumed its 
passage, were Mrs. Heygate, Miss Mc Murdo, 
and the Misses Atkins. The state of the 
navigation soon threatened to impede the course 
of the barge. The shallowness of the river, 
indeed, as the vessels drew on towards Romney 
Lock, rendered it necessary for the Lord Mayor, 
and others of the party, to continue the passage 
in the water-bailiff's boat. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 115 

The night was starlight, just enough to show 
the irregular walls and majestic towers of 
Windsor Castle, lifting themselves in dark relief 
against the near horizon. The clock had told 
some time the hour of eleven, before the Lord 
Mayor, and those of his friends who had 
accompanied his Lordship in the boat, arrived 
at the cast-iron bridge at Windsor. They 
were immediately conducted along the steep 
ascending street that leads up from the river 
into the interior of the town ; and were met at 
the Castle-inn by the Lady Mayoress, and other 
ladies of the party; who had, about an hour before, 
arrived in their carriages from Maidenhead. 

The ladies were soon after waited upon by the 
hostess of the inn, who conducted them to the 
apartments that had been previously engaged 
for their reception. 

The remainder of the party subsequently 
arrived in the State Barge ; though not without 
having become borrowers on the night for an 
hour or two. 



116 THE LORD MAYOR'S 



SATURDAY, 



" Good from each object, from each place acquir'd ; 
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd." 

Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour 
at which the civic party had arrived in Windsor, 
on the preceding evening, time had yet been 
found to receive and answer the communication 
made to the Lord Mayor by the architect to 
the king. Mr. Wyatville had offered, with 
much promptitude and politeness, to give every 
facility to his Lordship and his friends for 
viewing those magnificent improvements that 
are now making in Windsor Castle. 

Some of the party had risen early, — even 
while the crimson streaks on the edge of the 
horizon were giving tokens of the recent sun- 
rise, — in order to survey, in a walk before the 
breakfast hour, the exterior of this fabric of 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 117 

veneration. The large grey tower, which has 
stood the brunt of ages past, and seems likely 
to stand the brunt of ages yet to come, built on 
a lofty mound, and used as the ancient keep, 
over which waves the regal standard, said to be 
fourteen yards in length, and eight broad, which 

" Proclaims the royal residence is here ; — " 

The noble terrace, faced, on all sides, by a solid 
stone rampart, commanding the most extensive 
prospects over the Thames, and surrounding 
country, and justly considered the grandest 
walk in Europe; — all this, — associated with the 
recollection, that, within this stately castle there 
have lived, for upwards of seven centuries, from 
Edward the Third's great reign, monarchs who 
have filled history with their deeds, and the 
earth with their renown, — renders even the 
external aspect of this courtly habitation awfully 
imposing. 

As soon as the party had done ample honours 
to the delicacies of a well-spread breakfast- 
table, they proceeded to view the interior of the 
Castle ; and, having entered the Lower Court, 



118 



THE LORD MAYOR S 



at the principal Gate Tower, they were first 
conducted to the Collegiate Chapel of St. 
George ; generally considered to be the most 
complete and finished specimen of what is 
termed the florid gothic, in the kingdom. The 
choir is separated from the body of the chapel 
by an organ-gallery; which, though built of 
artificial stone, yet, as it is uniform with the 
rest of the chapel, adds considerably to its 
elegance. On each side of the choir are the 
stalls of the Knights of the Order of the Garter; 
with the scarf, helmet, crest, and sword, of 
each knight, set over the stall, on a canopy 
richly carved of oak, though with the grotesque 
decorations of gothic architecture. On the 
right hand of the principal entrance into the 
choir, is the sovereign's stall ; whose banner is 
of rich crimson velvet, and the mantling of gold 
brocade. 

As the party were looking round on these 
vacant stalls, and on the rows of gorgeous 
banners that overhang their pinnacles, he who 
shews the chapel, — as if desirous that they 
should connect their view of these memorials of 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 119 

distinction with the dust and oblivion in which 
all distinctions must eventually terminate, — 
hastily drew down their attention to a part of 
the pavement, in front of the altar, where is the 
entrance to the Royal Vault; — that dusky cham- 
ber of mortality, where kings, and princes, and 
princesses, lie mouldering in their beds of dark- 
ness. 

The painting of the Last Supper, over the 
communion-table, is by West, and is said to be 
one of his finest works. Some of the party, 
however, conceived that the countenance of 
Judas is so plainly indicative of every thing 
that is treacherous, dark, and deadly, that, if 
his features had really been so strongly marked 
as the artist has depicted them, no one at the 
table of the Last Supper could have doubted, 
for an instant, who it was that should betray 
our blessed Lord. 

The subject of the window, over the altar, is 
the Resurrection. It is divided into three 
compartments. In the centre is our Saviour 
rising from the tomb, preceded by an angel; 
above whom, in the clouds, is an host of 



120 

cherubim and seraphim. In the front ground 
are the Roman soldiers, thrown into various 
postures of astonishment and terror, and gazing 
with amazement at the risen Saviour. On the 
right hand are Mary Magdalene ; Mary, the 
mother of James j and Salome, coming to the 
sepulchre, with ointments and spices to anoint 
the body of their Divine Master : and on the 
left are Peter and John, supposed to have been 
recently told of our Lord's resurrection by Mary 
Magdalene, and running towards the sepulchre, 
— their countenances indicating the greatest 
surprise and anxiety. This masterly performance 
was designed by West, but executed by Jarvis 
and Foster. In the north-east corner of the 
choir, on the left hand of the communion- 
table, is an elegant wrought-iron model of the 
east end of Antwerp Cathedral ; executed by 
Quintin Matsys, the celebrated blacksmith, 
who afterwards turned his attention to the 
study of painting. 

The party were now conducted through 
folding gates into the North Aisle, and passing 
round, on the east, into the South Aisle, they 



VISIT TO OXFORD, 



121 



glanced but rapidly at the various painted 
windows, the mural and other monuments, in 
their eagerness to inspect the Cenotaph to the 
memory of the late Princess Charlotte of Wales ; 
which occupies what was once a small chantry, 
in the north-west corner of the chapel. The 
monument is of white marble, and was executed 
by Mr. Matthew Wyatt. The body of the 
Princess is represented lying on its side, covered 
with drapery, which extends also over the 
couch on which it is lying. One hand hangs 
down; and the ringers, which are just seen 
escaping from beneath the covering, have quite 
the appearance of inanimate life. Four figures, 
entirely veiled, as if to conceal their agony of 
grief, are seen bending down around the couch 
of the deceased princess. At the back of the 
whole, over the couch, where the marble is so 
wrought as to give the idea of opened curtains ; 
a figure, intended to represent the soul of the 
princess, clothed in white garments, appears to 
be ascending to heaven, between two angels, — 
one of whom is carrying her infant. A gilded 
stone cornice surmounts the whole, with the 



I 



122 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

coronet of the princess in the centre. The base 
of the chantry is a slate-coloured marble ; and 
the whole is enclosed within a low railing of 
polished brass. The two windows at the side 
of the monument are studiously darkened with 
painted glass, the one of a yellow colour, and 
the other of a dark purple, in order to bring 
out the figures in bolder relief; thus 

" Teaching light to counterfeit a gloom," 

somewhat in accordance with the melancholy 
train of reflections which the cenotaph so 
impressively awakens. 

Of the merits of this singular piece of modern 
sculpture, as a whole, there were differences of 
opinion. Some of the party thought that the 
lamented cause of her death would be told 
more simply to after ages, if the princess had 
herself carried her babe. Others inquired, why 
— as she is supposed to have thrown aside the 
incumbrance of the body, — is her figure so 
much larger than the angels who are attending 
her? Some thought there should have been 
only one figure of the princess : others conceived 



) 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 123 

that there is an inelegance in the drapery in 
the front of the figure representing the soul. 
Some, moreover, were of opinion, that the light 
which finds its way upon the monument, 
imitating the colour of sun-set, increases its 
effect : others, again, thought that it lessened 
it. It was generally agreed, however, notwith- 
standing these minor shades of difference in 
opinion, that it is a very ingenious work for a 
young man who was not originally educated as 
a sculptor. 

Mr. Wyatville was now kind enough to lead 
the way to the buildings on the east and south 
side of the Upper Court, where the improve- 
ments at the present time are being made. At 
the entrance of this Court, the attention of the 
party was drawn to an immense pile of rotten 
wood, — which had been taken from the east 
and south sides, — showing how entirely the 
timbers in that part of the Castle were decayed. 
Considerable progress was now seen to have 
been made in these projected improvements. 
The Grand Entrance, or George the Fourth's 
Gateway, is built, and faces the Long Walk. 



124 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

From that gateway, along the South Terrace, 
and returning on the east side, all the external 
parts are nearly finished. The New Terrace, on 
the eastern side, is in a very forward state. 
Within the Upper Court, on the south and 
east sides, the Long Gallery, — five hundred and 
fifty feet in length, — is nearly completed. It 
. forms a direct communication to all the private 
apartments of his Majesty. The Court, too, 
has been lowered considerably, to avoid the 
inconveniences formerly felt. The architect's 
principle of proceeding, — of which too much 
can scarcely be said in commendation, — seems 
to be, to restore, with even greater grandeur, 
those parts of this magnificent building which 
time, or caprice, had destroyed, of the castellated 
character. 

The Commissioners appointed for the super- 
intendence of these great and necessary 
alterations are, — 

The Duke of Wellington, Lord Farnborough, 

The Earl of Liverpool, Sir M. W. Ridley, 

The Earl of Aberdeen, Right Hon. Charles Arbuthnpt, 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alexander Baring, Esq. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 125 

Some of the distinguished architects in the 
country were called upon by his Majesty to 
frame designs for these important works. The 
plans, however, of Mr. JefTry Wyatt were finally 
decided upon by the Commissioners, with the 
approbation of the King. 

His Majesty first signed the approved designs, 
and then the Commissioners.* 

When the party had arrived at the door of 
the small private staircase, by which admission 
is given to view the State Apartments ; the 
Lord Mayor took leave of Mr. Wyatville, with 
one of those well expressed compliments to his 
kindness of communication, which no one 
knows better how to offer. 

The first room into which the party were 
conducted was 

THE QUEEN'S AUDIENCE CHAMBER, 

in which are the following paintings : — 
Whole-length Portrait of James II., Sir Pete?' Lely. 

* During the previous reign, many parts of the Castle were 
altered, under the late Surveyor General, JamesWyatt, Esq. vl.a, 
And, in order to prevent immediate and historical confusion, his 






1*26 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Portrait of Queen Anne, Sir Peter Lely. 

Anne, of Denmark, Queen of James I., VanSomer. 
Henrietta Maria, of France, Queen of 

Charles I., Vandyke. 

William III. when a Boy, Honthorst. 

Frederick Henry, Father of William III. t Ho?ithorst. 
The Meeting of Isaac and Rebecca, Zuccarelli. 

There is also a Landscape by Zuccarelli. 

THE BALL ROOM 

Contains some fine paintings by Guido, 
Vandyke, and Sir Peter Lely. There are also 
in this apartment several magnificent tables and 
chandeliers of massive silver; some of which 
were presented to King William the Third by 
the Corporation of London. 
In the 

queen's drawing-room 
the paintings are : — 

The Apostles Peter, James, and John, Caravaggio. 
Portrait of Lady Digby, Vandyke. 

nephew, the present architect, — also a member of the Royal 
Academy, — took, by the gracious permission of his Majesty, the 
name of Wyatville, drppping the final t of the former name. 

1 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 127 

This is an allegorical painting, intended to show how 
entirely unfounded were the remarks of malevolence 
and envy with which the character of this lady of 
extraordinary beauty had been assailed. A dove is 
introduced, expressive of her innocence : and she is 
handling a serpent, without fear, to show how little 
even the envenomed tongue of slander could injure her. 
The figure of Calumny, double-faced, bound, and 
thrown down on the ground behind her, is demonstra- 
tive of her triumph over the malice of her traducers. 

Pilate delivering up Christ, Schiavoni. 

Pharaoh's Daughter finding Moses, Zuccarelli. 

Portraits of Killigrew and Carey, Jesters 

to King Charles the Second, Vandyke. 

With other Portraits and Landscapes. 
The next magnificent room is 

THE QUEEN'S STATE BED-CHAMBER, 

Where hang the likenesses of the fourteen 
beauties that graced the gay court of Charles 
the Second : 

Lady Sunderland, 

Countess of Northumberland, 

Countess of Rochester, ^ Sir p eter Ldy% 

Countess de Grammont, 

Duchess of Richmond, 



I 






128 THE LORlJ MAYOR'S 

Duchess of Cleveland, 7 

ta , t & r Peter Lely. 

Duchess of Somerset, 3 

Lady Byron, Huysman. 

Mrs, Nott 

Countess of Ossory, \ Wissing. 

Mrs. Lawson, * 

Mrs. Middleton, -. 

Lady Denham, > Sir Peter Lely. 

Lady Whitmore, * 

There are also Portraits of William Duke of 
Gloucester, son of Queen Anne, by Sir Peter 
Lely ; and a Portrait of the Duchess of Orleans, 
by Spatillo; with many others, and several 
Landscapes. 

The Bed of State in this room, — of which the 
hangings and coverlet are of lilac satin, lined 
with white satin, and splendidly embroidered 
with flowers, — is said to have been worked by 
the daughters of a clergyman in Bedfordshire, 
of the name of Wright, and to have been placed 
there by her late Majesty, Queen Charlotte. 

At the north-west corner of 

THE QUEEN'S DRES9ING-ROOM 

Is a small closet, in which are deposited all 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 129 

the banners of France, — -each of which consists 
of a gold fleur-de-lis on a white ground, 
annually delivered at the Castle, before twelve 
o'clock, on the second of August, by the 
successive Dukes of Marlborough ; — being the 
tenure by which they hold Blenheim. In this 
closet are also deposited all the tri-coloured 
banners, except the last, by the annual delivery 
of which, on the anniversary of the battle of 
Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington and his 
descendants are to hold the princely estate 
granted him by the nation for his transcendent 
services. It is said, that if either of these 
illustrious Dukes should fail in the delivery of a 
new banner at Windsor Castle, on the days, and 
at the hour, respectively required of them, he 
would forfeit his estate, and five thousand a-y ear. 
Returning through the Queen's State Bed 
Chamber, and the Queen's Drawing Room, the 
party entered 

THE KING'S DRESSING ROOM, 

Which contains, among others, the following 
paintings :— * 



130 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

The Angels appearing to the Shepherds, Poussin. 

Whole-length Portrait of Edward the 
Sixth, and a Portrait of the Duke of 
Norfolk, both admirable specimens of 
the brilliant style of Holbein. 

St. Peter delivered from Prison, Steenwick. 

Head of Erasmus, Perm. 

Portrait of Martin Luther, Holbein. 

This is an admirable painting of that great Reformer. 

The Garden of Eden, Breughel. 

A Head of the Virgin, Carlo Dolci. 

A Head of the Saviour, Carlo Dolci. 

The Agony in the Garden, Poussin. 

An awfully-impressive painting. 

St. John, Carlo Maratti. 

The Misers, Quintin Matsys. 

This is considered one of the most extraordinary paintings 
in the Royal Collection, both for powerful delineation 
of character, and extreme brilliancy of colouring. The 
painter, it is said, was an humble Uacksmith at 
Antwerp. 

Portrait of William the Third, \ 

Portrait of Mary, his Queen, > 

The Last Supper, a Sketch, Rubens. 

If this were not an excellent painting, and every way 

worthy of its great Master, it would be difficult to 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 131 

forgive the Artist the anachronism of a pair of 
spectacles on the nose of one of the principal figures. 

There is also in this room a richly-inlaid 
cabinet, which was used as a writing-desk by 
William the Third. 

In the 

king's closet 
There are several fine paintings ; among these 
are — 

Portraits of Titian and a Venetian Senator, Titian, 
Two inimitably fine Heads : the one, Age ; 

and the other, Youth, Holbein. 

A Holy Family, from Titian, Teniers. 

Portrait of Charles the First's Queen, Vandyke. 
Portrait of the Great Duke of Marlborough, Dahl. 
Portrait of Charles the Second, Russell. 

The Virgin and Child; a most interesting 

Picture, Guido. 

The Death of Cleopatra, Guido. 

Heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, Guercino. 

The Holy Family, a pair, After Raphael. 

The next apartment is 

THE COUNCIL ROOM; 

In which are the following paintings : — 



132 the l6rd mayor's 

Whole-length Portrait of George theThird, Dupont. 
Portrait of Charles the Fifth, After Titian. 

Portrait of Charles the Second, when a Boy, Vandyke. 
Charles the First's Children, Vandyke. 

This Picture is said to be one of the finest works of this 
Master. 
Jacob's Departure from Laban, 
St. John, After Correggio. 

Whole-length Portrait of Queen Elizabeth, 

when Princess, 
Portrait of the Queen of James the First, Jansen. 

The paintings in the King's Closet, the 
King's Dressing Room, and in the Council 
Room, are displayed with admirable effect, by 
the hangings of scarlet cloth, encircled with 
gold mouldings, which surround the room. 

In the 

king's drawing room 
I 

the paintings are: — 

The Virgin and Child, After Correggio. 

St. John, After Correggio. 

Portrait of Father Couplet, a Jesuit Mis- 
sionary in China, generally called "the 
Converted Chinese," Sir Godfrey Kneller. 






VISIT TO OXFORD. 133 

This Picture is considered the chef-d'oeuvre of Knellei ; 
and was thought to be so by himself. 

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen, Rottenhamer. 

A Holy Family, Rubens. 

The Offering- of the Wise Men, Lucca Jordana. 

THE KING'S STATE BEDCHAMBER 

contains, among other fine paintings : — 

Sampson betrayed to the Philistines, After Vandyke. 
A Mathematician, Spagnoletto. 

Peter the Great, Sir Godfrey Knellir. 

Whole-length Portrait of Mary Queen of 

Scotland, Janneite. 

This Picture is on board ; and a representation of the 
execution of this most unfortunate Queen occupies a 
portion of the back- ground. 

In a recess at one end of this room is a State 
Bed belonging to Queen Anne. It is of crim- 
son velvet, manufactured in Spitalfields ; and 
though, at the present time, it is more than a 
hundred and twenty years old, its colours are 
good. 

Returning hence, and crossing the King's 



334 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Drawing-room, the next apartment into which 
the party were conducted was 

THE KING'S AUDIENCE CHAMBER. 

All the paintings in this room are by West > 
and they consist of seven large historical pieces, 
illustrative of the principal events in the reign 
of Edward the Third : — The Passage of the 
River Somrae ; the Interview between the King 
and his victorious Son after the Battle of 
Cressy; the Battle of Neville's Cross, in which 
David King of Scotland was taken Prisoner by 
Queen Philippa, whilst her Royal Consort, 
Edward the Third, was besieging Calais ; the 
Battle of Poictiers, in which John King of 
France was taken Prisoner ; the first Installa- 
tion of the Order of the Garter ; an Entertain- 
ment given by Edward the Third after defeat- 
ing the French in their attempt upon Calais ; 
and the Surrender of Calais. 

The chief paintings in 

THE KING'S PRESENCE CHAMBER, 

are Portraits of Charles the Second and James 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 135 

the Second, by Sir Peter Lely ; of King William 
and Queen Mary, by Sir Godfrey Kneller ; of 
King George the Second, by Zeenan ; and of 
Duns Scotus, by Spagnoletto. 

In the spacious room, denominated 

THE KING'S GUARD CHAMBER, 

Amidst an immense collection of arms and 
warlike instruments, ingeniously disposed in 
the form of colonades, pillars, shields, and 
circles, — is deposited the tri-coloured banner of 
the Duke of Wellington, presented at the 
Castle on the last anniversary of the battle of 
Waterloo. 



THE QUEEN'S GUARD CHAMBER, 



To which the party were admitted on crossing 
the spacious gallery in which the grand stair- 
case terminates, is also called the King's Private 
Chapel, and in the last reign was used as such ; 
but the number of guns, bayonets, pikes, and 
bandoleers, with which it is furnished, although 
they are disposed in various beautiful forms 



136 

around the walls, are not altogether in accord- 
ance with a place of worship. 

THE QUEEN'S PRESENCE CHAMBER, 

contains a few splendid paintings by Rubens 
and Vandyke. The Portraits of Charles the 
First and his Queen and Children, of James 
the First, and of Charles the First on Horse- 
back, are considered to be among the finest 
specimens of Vandyke. 

This was the last of the sixteen State Apart- 
ments through which the party were conducted ; 
and, as the time of re-embarkation was at 
hand, they were under the necessity of quitting 
this magnificent and Royal residence. 

The visit, however, had not failed to 
raise in every mind the earnest wish — that 
the illustrious Monarch, who now fills the 
throne of these realms, may live long to 
enjoy the improvements, of which his own 
tasteful mind has had the chief direction ; that 
strength may be continued to him yet many 
years, to sustain the weight of the British 
sceptre 5 that the God of his father may be his 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 137 

God ; that the same attachment to the Christian 
faith, which distinguished the character of his 
august parent, and the same patriotic devoted- 
ness to the happiness of his subjects, may 
continue to animate the councils, and increase 
the renown, of the present sovereign of 
England ; that we may sit down, — every man 
eating of his own vine and fig-tree, — happy in 
the enjoyment of our civil and religious liberty, 
— none daring, none desiring, to make us 
afraid ; and that, when his auspicious reign shall 
have touched upon its close, he may be accepted 
by that righteous Judge, whose hands will dis- 
pense crowns not encircled with care, and con- 
fer a kingdom not to be shaken ; according to 
that nobility of character, which is so well 
described in His own record of eternal truth ; 
and upon those who are born, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
but of God. 

The hour of re-embarking was now declared 
to be at hand ; and, after returning for a short 
time to the inn, the civic party, at a quarter 
before twelve, were once again on board the 



138 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

City Barge. The appearance of the vessel, as 
the meridian sun gilded its scarlet banners; 
the gazing and respectful salutations of the 
spectators, who thronged the bridge, were 
heaped on walls, and gates, and roofs, and 
hung, as it were, in clusters round the lamp- 
irons ; considerably heightened the effect pro- 
duced by the salutes of guns, and the pealing 
of church-bells. The weather continued to be 
serene and beautiful ; and, as the vessels cleft 
the glassy water, they left a long undulating 
track behind. 

The river, after it has glided past the village 
of Eton, — so celebrated for its College, which 
ranks among the first schools in the British 
empire, — winds round Windsor little Park, 
which discovers the Castle on its brow ; lifting 
up its lordly pile, as if to receive the prostrate 
homage of the surrounding country. After 
passing the village of Datchet — which appears 
to contain several pleasing country residences, 
— and Ditton Park, enriched with many wide- 
spreading oaks ; the river flows on between 
banks of osiers, till the vessels approached Old 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 139 

Windsor. This delightful village was once 
the residence of several Saxon kings ; and, in 
the reign of William the Conqueror, is said to 
have possessed about an hundred houses. But 
when that monarch fixed his residence on the 
neighbouring hill, it gradually sunk into decay, 
and New Windsor arose under the guardianship 
of the fortress which he erected. 

The improved state of the navigation in this 
part of the river considerably increased the 
speed with which the vessels glided along, and 
soon exchanged the county of Berkshire, — 
which had long given to the view so fine a range 
of interesting country,— for the county of 
Surrey ; in which the first object of especial 
notice is Cooper's Hill, so well sung by Sir 
John Denham, — in a poem to which he owes 
his chief fame. This hill is said to compre- 
hend a vast breadth of prospect, and to com- 
mand some of the finest reaches of the Thames. 

The meadow of Runnymede next appeared 
on the right ; that spot so sacred to British free- 
dom, where, — after a debate of a few days, — the 
Barons of the Empire prevailed upon King 

1 



140 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

John to sign and seal that Great Charter, 
which either granted or secured very important 
privileges and immunities, to every order of men 
in the kingdom, — to the, clergy, the barons, 
and the people. 

The view of this memorable place recalled 
to the recollection of the party the inscription 
of Dr. Akenside for a column atRunnymede : — 

" Thou, who the verdant plain dost traverse here, 
While Thames, among his willows, from thy view 
Retires : O stranger, stay thee, and the scene 
Around contemplate well. This is the place 
Where England's ancient Barons, clad in arms, 
And stern with conquest, from their tyrant king, 
Then rendered tame, did challenge and secure 
The charter of thy freedom. Pass not on 
Till thou hast bless'd their memory, and paid 
Those thanks, which God appointed the reward 
Of public virtue. And if chance thy 
Home salute thee with a father's honour'd name, 
Go call thy sons ; instruct them what a debt 
They owe their ancestors; and make them swear 
To pay it, by transmitting down intire 
Those sacred rights, to which themselves were born." 

The party, however, had scarcely time to 
admire these beautiful lines, and to indulge 




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VISIT TO OXFORD. 141 

those grateful reflections, which they are so 
well calculated to raise, before the ringing of 
bells, and the firing of guns, gave signals of 
approach to 

€§t ©ttg Stone* 

The State Barge was now moored close to the 
edge of the meadow, on which, at no great 
distance from the water-side, stands this ancient 
mark of the boundary of the Lord Mayor's 
jurisdiction on the Thames; with the square 
Saxon tower of the Church in the back-ground 
of the prospect. It is to this stone, not 
improbably, that the town of Staines, about a 
mile distant, and so well known on the great 
western road to London, is indebted for its 
name, — the Saxon word [Srana] signifying a 
stone. On a moulding around the upper 
part of the stone are inscribed the words, 
"God preserve the City of London, A.D. 
1285." 

While the several Office-bearers of the City 



142 

of London were arranging themselves in their 
respective robes of office, the party were ex- 
ceedingly amused by bursts of heterogeneous 
sounds, which proceeded from a small rustic 
band of musicians, in a barge at the water- 
side; who were scraping a violin, jingling a 
triangle, and beating a drum, with a vast 
deal more power than melody; and were 
attempting to play something like the national 
airs of " God save the King," and w Rule 
Britannia. " 

The oarsmen of the State Barge were busy in 
fixing a large plank from the boat to the shore; 
and four of them held a hand-railing on either 
side of the plank, which conducted the party 
immediately and easily from the barge to the 
meadow. 

Every thing being now in readiness for the 
performance of this ancient ceremony, — which 
multitudes of the surrounding inhabitants 
had turned out to see, — the Lord Mayor, 
Aldermen, and others, descended to the shore ; 
and walked three times round the stone, at a 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 



143 



considerable distance from it, in the following 
order : — 

A Police Officer. 
The City Colour. 
Thirty-two Watermen, in their New State 
Clothes. 
The Principal Assistant Water-Bailiff. 
The Barge-Master. 
City Marshall. 
Chaplain. 
Water Bailiff. Sword-Bearer. 

The Lord Mayor. 
The Aldermen. 
Town Clerk. 
City Solicitor. 
The Navigation Barge Master. 
The Water-Bailiff's Eight Watermen, in Full- 
Dress Livery. 

In the mean time, the Lady Mayoress, and 
the other ladies of the party, who were desirous 
of obtaining a better view of the ceremony than 
the crowd of spectators would admit of being 
taken from the State Barge, had been conducted 



144 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

to a convenient standing-place near the 
Stone. 

When the procession halted, the Lord Mayor 
took his station near the City Boundary; and 
directed the City Sword to be placed on the 
Stone, in token of his Lordship's jurisdiction. 
It was also a part of the ceremony, — which, 
though important, is simple, — that the City 
Banner should wave over the Stone. At the 
request, therefore, of the Lord Mayor, Lord 
Henry Beauclerk, a lad of very prepossessing 
appearance, of the age of fourteen, dressed in 
naval uniform, and brother to his Grace the 
Duke of St. Albans, mounted the stone; and 
held the City Banner during the performance 
of the ceremony. The Lord Mayor now received 
a bottle of wine from one of the attendants, and 
broke it, according to ancient custom, on the 
Stone. The Water-BailifT then handed his 
Lordship a glass of wine, who drank, ** May 
God preserve the City of London !" In this he 
was joined by the young nobleman and the 
assembled company. Orders were then given 
that the following inscription should be en- 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 145 

graven on the pedestal which supported the 
Stone : — 

The Right Honourable 

WILLIAM VENABLES, 

Lord Mayor of the City of London, 

and 

Conservator of the River Thames, 

Viewed the Western Boundary of the 

City's Jurisdiction on the said River, 

Marked by the Ancient Stone 

Raised upon this Pedestal, 

Erected a.d. 1285, 

On the 29th Day of July, a.d. 1826. 

God preserve the City of London ! 

The Lord Mayor then scattered abroad some 
hundred newly-coined sixpences ; and, after 
repeated cheering, returned onboard the barge; 
accompanied by Lord Henry Beauclerk, Lord 
Amelious Beauclerk, and Lord Charles Beau- 
clerk, with their tutor. These nice little boys, 
of the ages of nine, twelve, and fourteen, were 
altogether devoid of that petulant volubility 



146 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

which so commonly renders the young impatient 
of the conversation and company of their elders ; 
and were so intelligent, so well-behaved, and 
unassuming in their manners, as to give great 
promise of their future eminence and deportment 
in life. 

At three o'clock the party sat down, in the 
cabin of the State Barge, to a cold collation ; 
after which some speeches were made, expressive 
of the gratification with which this pleasure- 
voyage had been associated. 



It will here be proper to introduce some 
observations on the state of the navigation 
from Reading to the City Stone, in the second 
and third districts of this fine river. — For the 
Lord Mayor had not allowed those courteous 
attentions, which he distributed equally among 
all his friends, at all to interfere with that close 
and narrow observation, which it was one chief 
design of this excursion to make, on the state 
of the navigation. In this observation he was 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 147 

assisted by Mr. Alderman Lucas ; whose know- 
ledge of navigation unquestionably extends 
considerably beyond the rudiments of the science. 

It is a well known fact, that the Kennet and 
Avon Canal, made at an enormous expense, is 
used as a shorter and more desirable line of 
communication between the cities of London, 
Bath, and Bristol, than the Thames and Severn 
Canal ; chiefly, no doubt, because of the present 
state of the Upper Districts of the Thames. 

From Reading, therefore, the navigation 
ought to be put into that complete state of im- 
provement of which it is so capable. The 
important and increasing intercourse between 
the city of London, by means of its own river, 
— and the cities of Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, 
soon likely to become a port, with its bonding 
warehouses, — South Wales, — and even Ireland, 
would be thus materially facilitated. 

The necessity for making these improvements 
is great and obvious ; for it is for want of them, 
that unceasing attempts are made, in every 
session of parliament, to wrest much of the 
remaining trade from the Thames Navigation. 



148 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

And the practicability of such improvements 
has been beneficially proved in the case of the 
navigation in the City District, which, though 
at one time as much obstructed as any of the 
Upper Districts at present are, has been rendered 
altogether free from impediments or delay, 
excepting such as may occasionally arise from 
floods ; and even the duration and effect of 
these have been so materially lessened, that 
they are never known to exceed the detention 
occasioned by frost on canals. 

The principal and most expensive improve- 
ments, then, that are required, are in the Second 
District, between Boulter's Lock and Staines ; 
in the Third District, between Boulter's Lock 
and Reading ; and these improvements must be 
chiefly made in the towing-paths, — in that, 
particularly, just opposite to Medmenham 
Abbey, and in that at Spadoak. At Cookham 
and Hedsor improvements are necessary, which 
would be best effected by a lock at Hedsor. 

At Boulter's Lock great improvements might 
be made by building a lock on the Berkshire 
side of the river, in place of the present one, 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 149 

which is completely worn out ; inaccessible and 
impassable at low water, from the height of its 
cillj, and the crooked and shallow channel below 
it, lying at the distance it does from the 
towing-path. 

Farther improvements are necessary in the 
towing-path and channels between Maidenhead 
Bridge and Surley Hall Point; where the navi- 
gation of the river should be abandoned for 
that of a side-cut, — with an opening weir at the 
head of it, — to pen the water upwards ; and a 
lock at the lower end, at Clewer Point. By 
these alterations, two inconvenient and danger- 
ous points, with the shoal-water and bad towing 
between them, would be avoided. 

When this improvement is completed, the 
towing-path above Windsor Bridge, might, and 
probably would, be advantageously removed to 
the Berkshire side. Romney Lock, too, requires 
complete repair. An opening weir is necessary 
at the head of the New Cut at Old Windsor, to 
keep a sufficient depth of water in that cut, 
and to help the water above. The New Channel, 
made by the City ballast boats, should be kept 



150 THE LORD MAYOR ? S 

open; the towing-path, just below it, raised; 
a new channel dug near to the towing-path, at 
Old Windsor pay-gate ; and the lock and weir 
at Bell Weir, which are but of a temporary 
nature, and in an improper situation, should be 
substantially constructed on an improved site. 

That these improvements would answer the 
purposes required, and render the Thames 
Navigation what it ought to be, there can 
scarcely be any reasonable doubt. Its present 
state is perfectly anomalous : and no land com- 
munication in the kingdom, between the metro- 
polis and places of such consequence as those 
to which these remarks have before referred, 
would be suffered to remain in such a state one 
single session of parliament. 

Unless, therefore, it be a matter of no moment 
at all to retain the present trade upon the 
Thames; — if, rather, it be an object of the first 
importance to make available the jurisdiction 
which this great city has over so large a portion 
of so fine a river, — which jurisdiction it has held 
for many hundred years ; — -if the increase or 
diminution in the value of the corporation pro- 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 151 

perty, and that of its citizens on the banks of 
the river, — arising from the increase or disuse 
of the Thames Navigation,— be questions of 
great and pressiug interest ; — if the opening of 
the Pool to the upper parts of the river, in 
consequence of the removal of London Bridge, 
and the facility which the Thames affords in 
conveying articles of subsistence, — such as, for 
instance, flour, — into the heart of the metropolis, 
and taking back from thence articles of com- 
merce into the interior ; with numerous other 
advantages, too numerous to be either described 
or foreseen : — if these considerations have all, 
or any of them, any weight, then the improve- 
ment of the Navigation of the Thames should 
be, by every means, most carefully attended to. 



When the party rose from the dinner-table, 
and resumed their seats under the banners that 
streamed over the vessel, the high grounds of 
Oatlands were caught in the distance. With 



152 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

the exception, however, of Chertsey Church, 
and the Abbey House, there are few objects to 
vary this part of the scenery till the bridge 
presents itself, backed by high and woody 
grounds. Chertsey Mead stretches on in a fine 
display of farms, villages, and villas, and every 
mark of cultivation and opulence. Walton 
Bridge is a conspicuous object, and adds much 
to the scenery. The little tower of Shepperton 
Church, rising from a pretty group of trees and 
houses, is an interesting object. The view now 
becomes confined by thick banks of osiers on 
either side of the river; but the tower of 
Sunbury Church soon discovers itself, and, in 
about two miles, we reached that sumptuous 
village, where numerous fine houses enrich the 
shore. The principal ornament of the village of 
Hampton is the villa of the late David Garrick ; 
and the next grand feature in the scenery is the 
Palace of Hampton Court, said to have been 
built by Cardinal Wolsey, soon after his 
advancement to the see of York. It is situated 
near the river, and, though built with a very red 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 153 

brick, — which is not considered favourable to 
the display of architecture, — it is yet a most 
superb structure. 

From Kingston, the river, in a gently bending 
reach, flows on toTeddington,or the Tide-ending 
town ; so called, because the force of the tide 
does not extend beyond this pretty village. 

The State Barge, and its attendant vessels, 
were now gliding swiftly over a most magnifi- 
cent reach of the river; and, having passed 
successively the numerous lovely villas of 
Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, Marble Hill, 
Ham House, and Petersham, they at length, at 
twenty-five minutes after eight in the evening, 
arrived at the village of Richmond ; so well 
known, and so much admired for the charms of 
its situation. 

The vessels paused at the bridge ; and the 
carriages, which had been previously ordered, 
being found to be in readiness, the party, — all 
in the full tide of spirits, regretting only, 
indeed, that what had been so delightful was 
to be also so short, — every one's countenance 
deeply imbrowned by long exposure to the sun 



154 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

and air, — now took leave of the Lord Mayor 
and Lady Mayoress, and returned to their 
respective homes. His Lordship soon after 
ascended from the river-side to the interior of 
Richmond ; and entered the private State 
Carriage, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, 
and attended by the Sword-bearer and Chap- 
lain. The horses were put at full speed, and, 
at a few minutes before ten, the Lord Mayor 
arrived at the Mansion House. 

Thus ended this pleasure-voyage ; of which 
the whole party will ever retain the most grati- 
fying recollections. Of the mode in which the 
time was passed, in the progress of this pas- 
sage down the river, it would be difficult and 
tedious to detail all the particulars. Suffice it, 
therefore, to say, that although the party were 
three successive days, — two of which days 
included fifteen hours, — upon the water; yet, 
such was the fine and ever-varying nature of 
the home scenery around them, which was of 
itself sufficient to engross the attention, as the 
Thames made its azure sweeps round slopes of 
meadow land ; so diversified were the occupa- 
1 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 155 

tions of reading, working, and conversation, — 
conversation, which, always easy and intelli- 
gent, was often such as to discover memories 
containing ample registers of miscellaneous 
snatches and fragments of sentiments, both in 
prose and verse, which were sometimes applied 
with considerable tact and address to passing 
scenes ; — so well and interestingly, in short, 
were the several successive hours filled up ; — 
that no recourse was had, in any single instance, 
throughout the voyage, either to cards or dice ; 
or to any other of those frivolous expedients of 
indolence, to which so many of the evening 
hours of life are sacrificed ; and in which that 
time is suffered to waste away, which Provi- 
dence allows us for the duties of our station ; 
and which, when gone, shall never return. 



Here, then, ends the narrative. And if, 
perchance, it should be asked, "To what pur- 
pose is all this ? What good is the record of 
these occurrences designed to do V It may be 
answered, — That the Lord Mayor's Visit to 



156 THE LORD MAYOR'S 

Oxford, and his progress down the Thames — 
apart from the effect which it has already been 
known to have, in suggesting improvements in 
the navigation of the river, — will be always 
deeply interesting, to those at least connected 
with it, from the consideration, that the indi- 
viduals of the Party are never likely to meet again 
in this world, altogether in the same society. 

An event, indeed, has lately happened, — 
even since the first sheets of this little work 
were put to press, — the sudden and lamented 
death of one of the party ; # which not only 
most impressively forbids this expectation, but 
proclaims, with the voice of a passing bell, the 
tremendous uncertainty of life. 

This little narrative, then, will not have been 
written entirely in vain, if it shall at all con- 
tribute to remind the respected individuals 
whose names have been mentioned on its pages, 
— that even if such delightful parties could 
continue always, and they could dwell together 
thus harmoniously for the full season of this 
mortal life ; yet that, after a few more years, at 

* The lute Mr. Alderman Magnay. 



VISIT TO OXFORD. 157 

most, the grave would close its gates between 
them, — that every page will, ere long, be torn 
from the volume of every one's life, — and all 
will have passed away. 

If, however, they shall diligently seek, — 
and there is but one way, — to be included 
in the general assembly and church of the 
Jirst-born, whose names are written in heaven, 
— then, though they may chance to pass whole 
weeks, whole months, and, it may be, whole 
years, without seeing or knowing any more of 
each other; — and though death may at last 
break the bond of their society on earth, — yet, 
like the waters of that ample stream which has 
recently borne them so pleasantly along, — 
separated, for a short time, by the piers of an 
intervening bridge, — they shall ultimately meet 
again, in that more perfect state of being, where 
there shall be neither absence, nor interruption; 
— where death, is never known ; and friends, are 
never parted. 

THE END. 






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